Michael Nobbs is a full-time artist, blogger and tea drinker (not necessarily in that order). He is the writer of the popular blog Sustainably Creative and regularly publishes, The Beany, an illustrated journal of his life. In the recent nineties he was diagnosed with ME/CFS and, over the final decade, has learnt a lot about sustaining a creative career with limited energy.
He recently published an eBook on the subject, Sustainable Creativity.
How embracing imperfection and the wonders of the digital world can save us on creative track.
Don't let a concern of imperfection stop you in your tracks just got on with creating something. The wonders of the digital world means you can constantly update your creations later.
In the old day writers' and artists' imperfections were largely set in stone. Traditional media was very unforgiving of the feeling of doing the act now and then tweaking and putting it right later. The disbursement of publishing a book didn't provide for mass recalls and reissuing if the a major typo was discovered or if the author decided they would wish to add a few more chapters. An artist whose shape is suspension in a gallery couldn't decide that they would wish to repaint a division of the work. A poem would have been considered finished if it was printed in an anthology. A film would be wrapped up once the final reel was printed.
The belief of "finished" could be a matter of the past
Consider how the earth has changed. Now that we have touched on from typewriters to keyboards we can cut and re-edit without the demand for correction fluid (or even paper). These re-edits can go on beyond publication. On the simplest level this could only be updating a webpage or blog post to set a previously missed typo or to add some new data that wasn't available at the time of writing. On a more complicated (and very exciting) level this could mean constantly developing a digital product, updating it and sending it out to its current audience. If they wish digital artists can update work that hangs in digital frames in a gallery, poets can publish poems "live" to a self-updating digital anthology. If we wish, the feeling of "finished" could be a thing of the past.
Shake off the care of imperfection
What is still more exciting about this exemption from the feeling of finished is that creatives can once and for all stir of the care of imperfection and simply get on with creating. Now nothing is set in stone we can experiment and get our ideas. We can work in the digital sandpit.
The care of "acquiring it wrong" is something that scares many of us from ever putting a marker on a sharp new plane of paper. Now this theme can be a digital one, clean and brisk as many times as we care at the reach of button,the qualification of that first note has never been so easy. And it is from first marks (or first keystroke, shutter release press or video clip! that wonderful things can grow.
It's never been so gentle to form a life from employment in progress
What's more, it has never been so easily for creative professionals to have a life from their turn in progress. Offering something compelling with more to do as a project develops is a great way to draw an interview that is both firm and willing to interact with you and each other. The growth of a project becomes part of the tale of the production and we all know how important a tale is in this age of social media.
I'm increasingly learning to act like this myself. As person with very limited energy because of a chronic illness I have had to take to concentrate my creative efforts in as most efficient ways possible. I too want to get an income on a regular basis. Back at the end of last year I released a "beta version" of a new ebook to a special audience, and make only released an updated version to more people with the call of more to come. This example works really good for me. It could for you too.
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