How Tolkien Turned Boredom into a Bestseller

Be alert for creativity to strike in the midst of the mundane. Even an unexpected blank page can hold the beginning of your next masterpiece.

You don’t have to be working in a cabin in the woods to have creative insights. You don’t have to be a hermit, or to wake up before sunrise and meditate.

You don’t even have to be doing something creative.

In fact, creative insights sometimes strike in the midst.

In the midst of cleaning your kitchen. In the midst of driving to work. In the midst of formatting TPS reports.

JRR Tolkien tells a cool story about how he started writing The Hobbit. Tolkien wrote some of the most beloved fantasy novels of the twentieth century. But, like me, in his day job he was a university professor.

In a BBC interview in 1968, he recalls how the first line of his book The Hobbit came to him.

Should Creators Focus on Quality or Quantity?

In creative pursuits, quality will come as a result of quantity. Get intelligent reps in your field and share your work before you think you’re ready.

Writer Ryan Holiday said in an interview that he doesn’t put much stock in the "quality over quantity" excuse when creating.

You know the one. You say you want to line everything up first. To get everything ready so that it’s just right before releasing it to the world.

You say you want to painstakingly get everything right before you release your masterpiece.

Don't Sit on a Great Idea

When you have a creative idea that is a ten out of ten, get it out into the world as fast as humanly possible—because you can bet that someone else in the world just had the same idea as you.

As creatives, we get dozens of ideas. Most are fleeting, average, just okay. We work our creative process knowing that most of our ideas aren’t worth pursuing.

But we pursue these okay ideas anyway because we know that they are the path to the really special ideas.

The ten out of tens.

The ideas that give you a special feeling, like the heavens have either opened up before you or come crashing upon you—or both.

The Creative Wind Tunnel

In the world of creativity, there's something called the Creative Wind Tunnel. Ryan Tedder, the songwriter behind hits for artists like Beyoncé, Adele, and his band OneRepublic, uses this term to describe the phenomenon when creators get tunnel vision and start thinking their work is perfect, losing touch with reality.

When you're in the Creative Wind Tunnel, you can’t see your work’s flaws because you’re too caught up in it. This can stop you from making something truly great.

The Learning Trap—Create Now

There has never been a better time in history to learn. YouTube videos, Skillshare courses (I've even made a couple of these myself), Masterclass.com, Studio.com, podcasts—you have access to knowledge and lessons from the world’s greatest creative minds.

Learning new skills and techniques from external sources is undoubtedly valuable. It expands our horizons, keeps us curious, and helps us grow.

But there’s a hidden trap in this constant quest for new knowledge: the belief that we need to keep learning from others before we start creating. This can become a comfortable crutch, an excuse to postpone doing the actual work.

A Creative Breakthrough Lies Just Beyond This

Trust the process. Even in the in-between time. Even when you can’t see the finish line.

After the success of their 1997 album, “OK Computer,” British rock band Radiohead faced immense pressure to produce another landmark effort.

Lead singer and songwriter Thom Yorke was burnt out from the intense tour and promotional schedule they had been keeping.

But critics and fans wanted more. More melodic rock. More angsty lyrics. More of the same. They wanted OK Computer, Vol. 2. Imitators of the Radiohead sound were starting to sprout up. Other bands, such as Coldplay, would go on to build huge careers making their own versions of OK Computer, Vol. 2.

But instead of doing the expected, Radiohead released Kid A, a surprising, confusing and divisive album that took the band in a starkly different direction.

Make Sandals (On Mental Resiliency)

“A man wants to walk across the land, but the earth is covered with thorns. He has two options—one is to pave his road, to tame all of nature into compliance. The other is to make sandals.”

—Indian proverb

Josh Waitzkin, the chess prodigy turned world-champion-martial artist, has faced and beaten the world’s best.

And at the highest levels of competition, there are always dirty players. Waitzkin encountered them in his chess career as a fifteen-year-old.

Don't Box-In Your Creative Process

The creative process is anything but obvious—a truth that the outside world can never truly understand. The daily struggle. The adrenaline. The second-guessing. The blood, sweat, and joy.

The myth of the genius artist and the flash of insight is just that, a myth.

It’s only part of the story.

As a creator, you know that the creative process is never just one thing. It’s never just insight, or just hard work. The creative process is made up of intervals, like breathing in and out.

Make Your Work More Remarkable—Two Paths to Remarkability

Indifference.

It’s one of our greatest fears as professional creators. We pour our heart and soul into our work, and gather the courage to share it.

And the response is…silence.

Non-response.

Crickets.

The opposite of indifference is remarkability.

Remarkability is the quality of work that gets people talking. It’s when people feel compelled to share their experience of your work with others.

But how can we make remarkable work? I want to share with you two ways.

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