Recently I was browsing through reference materials I have for blogging for Mysterious Flame (Yeah, I know, I need to write more stuff there and on my personal blog) and found a piece I had printed out way back in 2006 — the publish date is 9/22/05 – entitled “Notes On Making Art.” (You may have seen it before, since Merlin over at 43Folders evidently linked to it.) The author, Sven, mentioned he had been reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, a book I can easily recommend to many people. Sven blows through ten things that stick out for him in the book, and there are two main themes that emerge in his notes:

1. Jump in and don’t edit yourself or your work
2. Keep moving; work quickly

The note that really stands out for me is point number 8:

Work fast. Creativity is exciting. If you’re not judging while you’re making, then you can just throw things together as fast as your mind can move. You’re smart; if you don’t like what you’ve made, you’ll know immediately. You might not know what to do about the problem you perceive… Don’t “think”, standing there cogitating — try things. If your hands are in motion, you can be generating new permutations. The one that you want to pick will come out on its own time.

I think this resonates with me since I have a tendency to dawdle. I over-think stuff. I have a bad habit of thinking about everything that could happen and end up getting stuck. However, a great way to get un-stuck is to just keep moving — without editing yourself.

It’s hard for me to do that — to allow myself to just dostuff and not get caught up in editing myself or get so obsessed with some little detail. (Sure, details are important, but not when they keep you from getting anything accomplished.) See, I think a lot of us are afraid of messing up,of making a foolout of ourselves, doing bad work. But I think the habit of plowing on through will yield some great results. That’s how Thomas Edison invented so many useful things andPablo Picasso created so many outstanding paintings: they stuck with it and plowed on through, even if something wasn’t the best. They did it and moved on.

How about you? How have you dealt with this same sort of thing, making yourself work quickly so that you don’t get bogged down? Feel free to share your comments in the forums.