Before it can be beautiful — before it can look like it does in your head — it will first have to be thrown-together and messy.
You can first make it ugly, or not make it at all. There is nothing else.
All creation comes from chaos. All works of art begin as splotches of paint on a canvas. It’s never beautiful at first. Before your work can reach its potential, it will first have to be bad.
The only way to start
When we choose to start with ugly, we do the following:
We actually create something (instead of continuing to dream about it).
We grow. We learn what works and what doesn’t.
We get the chance to make it better.
This is the hardest part of creating anything, but also the most important: starting. Without it, there is no project. Whatever you do, don’t leave it at ugly. But you have to start there. It’s where we all begin.
Today's challenge is to:
Make something ugly. And leave it ugly (temporarily). Be okay with it. Then share it with a few people you trust (feel free to use the comments here, if you like) and look for feedback. Find stuff you can improve and slowly move it towards beautiful.
I have started something ugly for sure! I finally started writing a novel I have been wanting to write last week and IT IS UGLY! I have added parts later that I didn't talk about in the beginning. I have skipped over issues that will be important later, and I have gotten lazy with punctuation (which internally drives me crazy but I was on a role). It is GRUESOME!...But it's down on paper, started.
That's a START
What about you? Any projects in the ugly stage? Any projects that need to be started and put in the ugly stage?
Way to go on starting the ugly! I love that idea. My swimming friend calls my butterfly stroke "the ugly". It may not look great but it's awesome to be swimming and improving my health.
ReplyDeleteYay for you! That's good advice. Sometimes our perfectionism can freeze our creativity. It's good to be okay with making ugly things! :) Yes, I'm in the middle of an ugly project. Well, it's draft 3 so it's slowly deuglifying. I hope this draft is better, anyway! :)
ReplyDeleteThat last story I wrote is still UGLY :) I really need to revise, edit, and polish it up.
ReplyDelete......dhole
Oh, yes. Ugly is my middle name when I'm writing. My first drafts are hideous, but I've come to terms with it!
ReplyDeleteI used to design and write software. You build the pretty user interface last - always - because it's not as important as the structure under it. Writing novels is a very similar process for me.
ReplyDelete