It’s Stewing.
When I am confronted with a major creative process, it often takes me quite a bit of time to get going. Somehow, I have a calm understanding that this is just the way it works … I cannot force deadlines on myself or contrive results. Eventually, details will start falling into place … new material will surface, technical bugs will get worked out, big-picture conceptualization will materialize, and I’ll build up enough reserve energy, enthusiasm, ideas, adrenaline and motivation to tackle the job. Until that moment, however, I understand that the best thing I can do is to do nothing, to frequently revisit the project but actually do nothing productive.
Strangely, though, I never try to explain this to anyone. Instead, I write this off as mere “procrastination”. I give regular updates about how it’s going [nowhere], toss in a few “shoulds” and “coulds”, and generally paint myself in a negative light. I’m not sure why … but I do. Perhaps it’s a faux humility thing or a lack of trust … I simply don’t think other people will understand.
But today I randomly ran across an article at Gagetopia called Are you procrastinating? Or are you just thinking? In it, Deane discusses the fact that creative projects have a stage where necessary thinking needs to occur:
It’s almost like every app has a gestation period. I know from having three kids that my wife got pretty sick of the whole pregnancy thing about four months into each of them. But, obviously, that baby needs to stay in there until it’s done. Likewise, even if you’re flat sure you know how to program that app, maybe sleep on it. Let it gestate a little more before throwing down any code.
I heartily agree. I’m think I’m going to try to minimize my rationalizations and stop calling it “procrastinaton”. Instead, I’ll just say that I’ve gathered and organized the raw material and now it’s on the back burner stewing. And there’s nothing wrong with that!
May 26th, 2006 at 11:27 pm EST
I agree with this post. All of it. I went through the same thing, getting mad at myself for waiting so long on stuff. but I have been doing some thinking and reading lately, and this confirms the whole creative-process-thinking-gathering-storing idea. I refer to it as “marinating.”
May 27th, 2006 at 12:01 am EST
i’m getting hungry.
May 27th, 2006 at 1:24 am EST
Ooo … marinating. I like that. Mind if I plagiarize occasionally?
Maria, you bring up a good point. Perhaps the whole stewing/marinating analogy appeals to me because it implies that I can cook. It’s not like I ever get to use those words for their intended meaning or anything …
May 27th, 2006 at 10:05 pm EST
men who can cook are sexy.
May 28th, 2006 at 1:23 am EST
so are women who can play tackle football.
May 28th, 2006 at 7:06 pm EST
um. you mean, like this ?
May 29th, 2006 at 9:08 am EST
I love that you wrote this entry. I’ve gone through my life thinking I’m a huge procrastinator and looking at it in a negative light. But in the last year, and through talking to several other “creative”-type personalities, I’m finding that many creative minds also have a hint of perfectionism. Which makes sense, I mean, if you’re going to create something, whether it be art, or music, or some other kind of project, you want it to be just right. I have so many unfinished songs that i’ve started and now that I’m getting into photography a little, I have all these ideas in my head, but trouble getting started. I guess we need to embrace the “procrastination” for what it really is…time to stew (or marinate!)
October 23rd, 2006 at 5:26 am EST
Pimples
Pimples