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If you could have seen me just before I sat down to write this, you would have thought I had lost my mind.
And let me tell you, to an on-looker, I must have looked like a complete fool.
The cringe-factor was at eleven.
The scene was so awkward that if you had been walking into the room to say hello to me, once you saw what I was doing you would have quietly turned around and tip-toed away hoping that I hadn’t noticed you were there.
So what was I doing?
Read MoreToday I want to share with you Rick Rubin's nine approaches for getting unstuck. In the book he applies these strategies to the Craft Phase of the creation process, but most could be applied to the earlier phases as well (Seed Phase, Experimentation Phase).
Before abandoning a stalled work, Rubin says, "it's worth finding a way to break the sameness and refresh your excitement in the work, as if engaging with it for the first time." (185) As a record producer, Rubin sometimes suggests exercises to his collaborators to encourage this experience. Here are the nine strategies he uses:
Read Moreou and I have talked about Rick Rubin's book, The Creative Act, before. Over the course of the book, he describes four phases of the creative process: Seed, Experimentation, Crafting, and Completion. Use these four phases to clarify your own creative process.
The Seed Phase.
Throughout the book, Rubin talks about creative ideas as “seeds.” In this phase, you collect as many potential ideas as possible.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreIn the spirit of deepening knowledge through the process of review, I want to re-share an essay from this newsletter last summer, on July 10, 2023. At the time, I was deep into an exploration of the creative act through reading Rick Rubin's book.
There are moments in life where you can step out of time and touch awareness. This essay was the product of one of those moments for me. I hope it encourages you today. To collaborate. To relate. To seek out creative partners in unexpected places.
Read MoreIndifference.
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.
Read MoreWho are your mentors?
A trusted mentor has perspective and experience that we don’t have. They have been where we want to go. They have made the film, written the book, faced the criticism. They have picked up the pieces when all seemed lost.
We go to great lengths to cultivate mentors, and when we have one, they are worth more than gold.
Yet there are two common mistakes I see creatives make when interacting with their mentors: disregarding the mentor’s advice, and failing to follow-up with their mentor.
Read MoreNo significant growth happens inside of your comfort zone.
Building muscle, learning a new language, learning a cutting-edge skill in your field. All require you to endure discomfort, stress, and even pain to reach the goal.
Think of two artists. One seeks out a single activity every day that pushes her out of her comfort zone. The other avoids all discomfort and tries to replicate past successes.
After one year, which artist do you think has experienced more creative growth?
Read MoreIn a superstar economy, the best get way more than the almost best.
So how should you respond as a creative artist? Here are two advanced ways you can position yourself to succeed:
Cross-train to become the best at a niche, cutting-edge aspect of your discipline.
Instead of fighting to be hired amid a sea of qualified artists, organize a project that others want to be a part of.
Let’s break it down.
Read MoreBoredom is boring. It feels painful. At the slightest twinge of it, our brain screams for relief.
Perhaps that's why so many companies exist to entertain us. Constantly. No need to wait in line—here’s a video. No need to drive in silence—take your pick from this podcast, audiobook, or album. Going to the bathroom? Don’t just sit there, take TikTok with you!
It seems our mission is to eradicate boredom in our lives as if it were a plague.
But is boredom a plague? Or could it be a hidden wellspring of creativity?
Read MoreAdam Grant knows how to produce at an elite level.
At age 28, he became the youngest professor to be granted tenure at the prestigious Wharton School. He later became its youngest Full Professor.
He was Wharton’s top-rated professor (yes, there is such a rating) from 2011–2017.
Before becoming a professor, Grant was an All-American springboard diver, an advertising director, and a professional magician.
When writer Cal Newport profiled Grant for his book Deep Work in 2016, Grant had already published sixty peer-reviewed articles in his field.
Read MoreI started The Creative Process Newsletter back in June so that I could share timeless principles and concrete examples of creativity. Now that we are over six months in, let’s reflect on what we’ve learned. Here are five top lessons that I focused on in my newsletter articles in 2023.
Read MoreLast week we talked about how to prepare before a Creative Deep Work session. It’s just as important to take time at the end of a session to reflect. To finish well.
Think of your reflections as feedback, not judgment. How did things go? What can be improved?
Asking the question “where did I fail today?” is a supremely hopeful question. If you don’t identify where you’ve faltered, you are more likely to fall into the same trap in the future.
If you want to get better faster, start reflecting on your work every day.
Here are four questions you can ask at the end of each session.
Read MoreYou and I have talked before about the creator’s daily struggle and how important it is to cultivate your very own creative deep work routine as a daily habit.
Sometimes the hardest part is just to start. That first five minutes. That’s why it can help to add a ritual to the beginning of your work sessions.
Think of it as a mindful warmup, a transition from everyday noise to creative flow.
I call it the Prepare Phase of your creative deep work routine. Here’s how to do it.
Read MoreTwo quick words of wisdom for you today, from Marcus Aurelius.
“Stop letting yourself be pulled in all directions.” (Meditations 2.7)
Know your life’s purpose: “People who labor all their lives but have no purpose to direct their every thought and impulse toward are wasting their time—even when hard at work.” (Meditations 2.7)
Don’t be distracted this week. Take action to extract yourself—kindly but firmly—from commitments that pull you away from your purpose.
Mark
P.S. A great way to find your purpose, or to keep your focus on it, is to journal about it every day.
Read MoreWe spend much of our lives trying to avoid it.
As adults, we deny it’s very existence in our past experiences.
As friends, we lie or equivocate to our loved ones to avoid being the bearer of it.
As parents, we will move heaven and earth to shield our kids from it.
What is it?
Read MoreLearning something shiny and new is easy. Deepening your understanding of something you already know is harder.
New ideas are a dime a dozen. But good ideas? The ideas that will change your perspective or shape your art for the next six months, the next six years?
Those are rare jewels, and they're often already there your mind's ore. You just have to mine for them.
And the best way to mine your own mind is to write down your thoughts. Journal like Dorothea Brande or Josh Waitzkin. Write a letter to a friend like Seneca did, sharing one piece of wisdom that you are meditating on.
Read MoreBefore he was the drummer in Nirvana, before he was the frontman of Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl was just a punk kid drummer from Virginia who loved music and wanted to make it his life.
Obsessed with music, he spent all his time learning the music of his heroes, practicing in his room, playing drums on pillows, listening to their recordings again and again. He learned directly from the recordings until he could play them all—every thundering drum roll, every crash, every hit.
He dreamed of one day getting to play with his heroes—literally dreamed about it.
Read MoreThere’s a moment in the song “The Story,” written by Phil Hanseroth and sung by Brandi Carlile, when the beat stops momentarily. Out of the quiet, Carlile suddenly scream-sings the line “All of these lines across my face.”
Coming about two-thirds of the way through, it’s the emotional high point of the song. A stirring jolt that grips the attention in the way that great music can.
In the song, Carlile is singing about how our scars tell our stories. How our imperfections make us who we are:
All of these lines across my face,
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I’ve been
And how I got to who I am
