BenCrowder.net

When it comes to creativity, I tend to blow to and fro with each new interesting wind that comes my way. For example:

Exhibit A: If I read a book on writing, read a novel, or watch a well-written movie or TV show, I want to write.

Exhibit B: If I respond to a single email about my magazine or flip through a back issue, I want to work on the magazine.

Exhibit C: If I watch a well-made animated film or clip, I want to make an animated film.

Exhibit D: If I read about good business principles that resonate with me, I want to start a side business.

Concrete case in point: Yesterday morning I got an email about my magazine. (One of our volunteers suggested a possible interviewee.) I replied. Suddenly I was interested in working on the magazine again, and I ended up spending a couple hours coding this administrative web app I’ve been working on (er, more honestly, the web app I’ve been procrastinating for weeks).

Second concrete case in point: I picked up this 20 Master Plots book my old roommate Joe gave me and flipped through a few pages, and suddenly I found myself craving to work on my novel Tanglewood. (Tangent: can you put a verb after “crave” or does it only work with nouns? Hmm.) (Okay, I’m back. Doesn’t look like you’re allowed to use it with an infinitive after all, but heck, I like the way it sounds, so I’m going to keep it.)

And the list goes on. It’s almost uncanny how reliable this system is — works pretty much every time without fail. And I think that’s the source of my wanting to do everything. Influences push and pull on me, and when they’re intriguing, I’m hooked. (At least for ten or fifteen minutes, I should add. If I don’t act upon that newfound interest, it usually wanes quickly. And this keeps me sane.)

Is it good? Yes and no.

The good: These triggers (motivators, catalyzers, whatever you want to call them) work really well, which means I can harness them to direct my creative energy. When I know I need to work on the magazine, all I have to do is make myself reply to one email and from then on it’s easy. I haven’t yet figured out how to harness them, but I’m working on it. Triggers are also good because they generate passion, which gets things done and makes life fulfilling and all that jazz.

The bad: I flit back and forth between projects, losing interest in the last one as soon as a new trigger pulls me in another direction. But I’m not sure this is actually bad; it keeps things varied enough to be interesting, and it doesn’t seem to have stopped me from getting stuff done. It just makes my experience broader instead of deeper, basically.

Triggers are especially handy in jumping the gap from zero to one:

Jumping the gap between 0 and 1 is tougher than 1 to 2, or 1 to 100. At that point, you’re building on something already there. It’s that initial jump where the urge to give into procrastination is strongest, where excuses can derail you easiest. We’re all creatives of one discipline or another, so creation (or rather, subcreation) is something we each deal with on a near daily basis. And, for the most part, it’s ex nihilo. A blank page or canvas is terrifying in its possibility and your inadequacy to fill it.

In other words, in getting from nothing to something. The something may be small, but it’s usually enough to get some momentum to move forward.

My current goal: figure out how to control these triggers so I can spend more time working on higher priority projects instead of sprawling myself all across the board.