The pressure to carry on creating feels immense. Again, no one applies this pressure to me or, depending on how well you relate to this post, possibly even yourself. Yet as a creative, the urge to create and create well can feel overwhelming. I have recently started working on my new project and am a couple of trips into the location, and starting to get a good body of work. Whilst I love the momentum I have behind me to just go and burn through rolls its important to remember to learn and adapt before and after every trip to the location. I must remember that I am building a body of work that should tell a story, rather than just getting what I get, as I used to when I was out on the street. This is a different aim for a different style of work.
I think this is growing up, I’m hitting 30 this month, and being able to catch myself before falling headfirst into this upward spiral of creative impatience is quite a big mature thing to do, I reckon. I also think that having multiple projects on the go at the same time is best for my style of creativity and work-life balance. For example, I have my main project I’m chipping away at, but due to my working a 9-5 job and the project requiring travel, I am not always able to work on it on my days off. Combining the travel element with the weather we have in the UK means most days are rainy and grey/overcast. These conditions are not ideal for my style of photography, as I need to work with the light and ideally harsh light.
So the main project gets time allocated to it when I feel it is worth it. When not doing that, I stay creative in other ways. I have these little videos I am making monthly, which require stills alongside the motion. This means not only do I go out and shoot film for them, which allows a touch of creativity, but also keeps me “in practice” for going out and doing projects. I saw something once that suggested you should treat creativity the same way athletes treat their given discipline. Don’t just assume you can take time off, then run a sub-4-minute mile; you have to train and hone the skills as much as you can.
Then, when the weather is really bad, or I don’t feel like leaving the house, I have my next book I am laying out and sequencing. This creative process again sharpens my skills as I’m looking at older work and working out what sort of techniques and artistic style pair well together and how I can flow one into the other. It’s not like I now go out and shoot with this front of mind; however, during the somewhat long walks between shots, I do find myself thinking what I should maybe be looking for to round out the project a bit better.
These other focuses allow me to stay creative pretty much any time I want to be. I don’t feel any of the work to be a chore, as I can float back and forth between them when the need takes me. Some people might say, “oh you should finish one project before moving on to the next”. To those people, I say try living inside a brain where I forget where my keys are as I am holding them, a brain where the act of writing a sentence feels like sitting a 3-hour maths exam. This brain can not handle structure. I am the hero ADHD deserves, not the one it needs.
