Why Try To Get Out Of Your Box, When You Can Use What's In It?
“The function of art has always been to break through the crust of conventionalized and routine consciousness… Artists have always been the real purveyors of news, for it is not the outward happening in itself which is new, but the kindling by it of emotion, perception, and appreciation.”
That’s John Dewey. Written 1927.
Can’t say it’s changed in the last 87 years. Can you?
Stay Positive & Make Sure You’re Making Art In Some Way Or Another
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Many blogs, many books, many talks are very, very unoriginal. The reason being is they are safe, they are familiar. Ever heard someone say every business book says the same thing, but in a different way? I’ve read enough of them that I would even push back on the “different way” part of the statement. I think all the writing was rushed.
Taking time
It is amazing how well one can write when one takes the time. Think about it. When rushed to write, you use and accept your clichés. Perfect example: journalism. The tight deadlines encourage the use of clichés, of simplification, of uniformity.
When you take time while writing, you find ways to say things better than a cliché can. If you decide to use a cliché, you at least spin it on its head and make it breakdance.
To craft something original…well, it’s scary, it’s uncomfortable, and it takes time.
When you write something original. It’s weird to leave it as it is. You want to change it for fear no one will understand it or like it. It sounds weird in your head reading it over because you’ve never read anything like it before. Orange frizzled daiquiri wedding cake looked sexier than a toucan during mating season. Wasn’t reading that fun? New? An adventure? I wrote it and it feels so weird keeping it.
Alas.
Weird is original and relatable.
The thing about weird I love so much is it will never go out of style. The world will always contain compartmentalists, always produce naysayers, always attract keepers of the status quo — those who are satisfied with the comfort of everything unoriginal. There will always be those resistant to new things and those who fear anything other than what is routine, common, and banal. Yet! There are and always will be those who love and connect with the weird.
Even in light of it all, I still say do what has never been done before. Word the sentence the way you’ve never read anyone word it. If you question whether anyone will like your writing, if you think it’s too far out there, then it’s complete. Ship it. The people who matter in this world (at least who matter to you, to your art) are out there. Wayyy out there. (Think Long Tail)
Build it and they might not come. Build it weird and more will arrive than you ever expected. The freaks shall inherit the earth.
As a dear PR-wonderwoman-friend-of-mine said, “Weird is in. Weird is good. Weird is awesome. Weird is essential. Weird is where the magic is.”
Stay Positive & Go Bananas
p.s. this goes for more than just writing
The Importance of Being Earnest is by far my favorite play. I’ve read it twice and quoted from it multiple times over in my writing. (Also bias in the sense Oscar Wilde is my favorite poet.) I was finally fortunate enough to see a live rendition of it last night, and the show reminded me what makes a play or any artform remarkable.
People never talk about perfection and if they do, they are lying.
From a three hour-long play, only two actors made one mistake each. They merely started a word and, half-way through, restarted the word. There was a millisecond moment they questioned whether the word they were saying was the right word or not.
Again, over the span of three hours and thousands of words, only two moments reminded the audience the actors are human, and those two moments make all the difference in a remarkable show and an unremarkable one.
Jugglers, Actors, Humans
The reason jugglers attract such a crowd is they are in a constant state of risk. Even the most professional jugglers in the world still drop what they are juggling. If jugglers were perfect, no one would be impressed. The same goes for a playwright. The same goes for any form of art.
Slight noticeable errors are what we all relate to; it’s part of being human. When a minimal error is made during an act, it reminds the audience just how difficult, incredible and remarkable the art you’re doing is. As Earnest would suggest, it is mixing pleasure and science.
If anything were perfect entertainment (pleasure), it would go without being talked about. People talk about great experiences, sure, but never perfect ones and if they do, they are lying. (Consider giving them dental floss and reminding them lying through their teeth doesn’t count as flossing.) When an error is made, science complements pleasure.
The universal relation of humans is we may all strive for perfection, but we will never reach it. Any reminder of this concept, say, a slip of a word during a three hour-long play is what makes art of any kind, remarkable.
Stay Positive & Do Something Remarkable, Anything Except Perfection
Asking what someone wants to be when they grow up is stopping the ball short. Same goes for the person who asks herself what she should really be doing with her life. If I ask you to tell me a color and you say “green,” that’s not enough either.
What kind of firefighter? What type of entrepreneur? What shade of green?
When Steve Wozniak decided to develop a computer (along with Steve Jobs), do you think he just thought to himself he was going to become a computer developer or did he think he was going to become the riskiest computer developer? the best computer developer? the most design-in-mind computer developer?
Think Seth Godin thought he would be just another marketer? Think Adam Levine thought he would be just another lead singer? Le Corbusier, David Meerman Scott, Zig Ziglar – they didn’t just think they would fill a spot in the world, they decided they would make a spot by doing things differently than anyone before them.*
When we decide what we’re going to do with our lives (for the time being, until we decide something new [and that’s okay too]), we have a chance early on to decide to do something difficult, to trailblaze, to do something in a way no one has thought of doing it before. Don’t become just another ______ (fill in the blank).
If you thought it took long to figure out what you were truly passionate about, imagine how long it takes to turn that passion into something different, unique, remarkable.
Stay Positive & Better Get Going
*Certainly they leveraged themselves by doing what those in the field they were interested in had done before, but they also improved, added, and twisted the techniques into their own.
When you find yourself struggling to create some crafty content, Frankenstein your work.
That is, take pieces of writing in your journals or parts of your favorite photographs and stitch them together with thread of your own flare.
So often art is taking pieces of different puzzles and putting them together to create something new.
Stay Positive & Watch Your Work Come To Life
You could easily duplicate a comedian’s skit. Memorize all the jokes, mimic all the facial expressions. The thing is, you won’t know how to interact with an audience member who interrupts your skit. What will you say to the guy that hollers out when you only ask for the ladies to say “aww.”
Any act, any entertainment, any art is best showcased when the artist is faced with the unexpected. It can be someone in the audience or one’s own mistake.
The reason why it’s suggested you fail and fail often is how you handle disruption is what matters, what people love to see, what people are fascinated by. It’s easy to follow the expected, it’s much more difficult to follow the unexpected.
Great thing about failure is people will love when you fall and they’ll love when you surprisingly land on your feet.
Stay Positive & Put Yourself In The Underdog Position From Time To Time
I could blog everyday for 5 years and still not get anywhere. You could spend 10 years on artwork and never get a chance to showcase it in a gallery. Your friend can spend his 20s fixing cars, but never get a tip. Gladwell’s idea you must spend at least 10,000 hours on something before you become a professional is incomplete. It’s not really the time the matters. It’s the bravery, the risk, the new things you try during that time.
Turns out 10,000 hours is enough time to try as many options, take as many risks and show as much bravery as it takes to truly get noticed, recognized and respected for your effort.
Time isn’t everything. Grit is.
Stay Positive & Start Impressing Yourself With The Work You Do
