Comments on: Deadlines as creative motivators.

By: babayard

babayard — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:49:58 +0000

J.D. that is brilliant. The “carrot on a stick” is a perfect description of how limits can offer their own rewards; training yourself to do the work. I love it.

By: babayard

babayard — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:46:09 +0000

Thanks Cathy. I look forward to a report on your Florence trip. I’m sure you and Dan Weldon will offer creative abundance in your workshops. I also know deadlines are exactly that for some people: “dead” lines. Obviously, though, there is a difference for people who can accomplish much even with the pressure of a requirement that something gets created on a schedule. What is that difference? I think it has much to do with how much enthusiasm one has for the work in the first place. If there is little, then the deadline creates more drudgery. If one truly loves and craves the work one is doing, a deadline is just one other way to work within some confine, which can be as interesting an opportunity as anything else. I was listening to a radio show about writers who create with constrictions that to some might seem oppressive. “Procedural writing,” such as a story of 300 pages without the letter “e” or an alphabetical list of game-show answers. Working within the boundaries of some limitation can set the creative mind on a fun ride.

By: J.D. Casten

J.D. Casten — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 23:24:20 +0000

Hello Bruce. I love your latest work, which has become a habit with me. I think creativity requires both a love of what you’re doing, as well as discipline. Possibly “Zen” moments come when one breaks through the discipline of meditation—but one ought to smell the roses on the way to where one is as well. Deadlines are definitely a form of discipline… they get you to work at your projects… but I like the “prize carrot” approach as well as the “stick,” if not a “carrot on a stick.” Although a finished work is a reward in itself, I often treat myself to something nice after completing a project—training myself, as it were, to do the work. Once you get over the “training” phase (if ever), I find that ingrained habits (even work habits) free people up to express themselves… even though such expression can be a challenge to those same habits… or as you said, “creating a space were you are no longer trying consciously to control the results.”

By: Cathy

Cathy — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 19:15:28 +0000

Wow Bruce!
You are amazing. I have been fascinated by the subject of creativity for years and taught workshops in it ions ago.
Thank you, as always, for being on the edge. As for deadlines, I leave to teach in Florence, Italy in 4 days and have had enormous breakthroughs about my subject, artist books, because of my deadline.
The art you have produced with your self imposed deadlines is proof that deadlines can stimulate creativity that might not otherwise happen. But what about the downside or shadow side of deadlines? what about people who collapse or turn passive with deadlines?
Speaking of deadlines- I need to get back to my planning.
I can’t wait to have time to read more of your blog.
Blessings and thanks,
Cathy

By: babayard

babayard — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 18:53:48 +0000

Spam is not creative. It is garbage and a waste of resources. Your “ramblings” on the other hand offer something of substance. I completely agree about putting in hours being important to getting to something of real value. I was recently watching Rick Smolan who is a photographer now creating huge publishing projects involving hundreds of photographers and the work produced is fantastic. His m.o. is to put in many, many hours and that his most creative work comes with the sense of pressure not knowing how he’s going to pull it off.