As a creative person, I can vouch that the best ideas come when you’ve fully given yourself to the moment. To the people. To life. But the journey from inspiration to finally serving a masterpiece needs you to lock out everything and do the doing. Away from the world and its expectations. Away from the endless stream of “better possibilities” on the Internet. Away from anything that would try to – even ever so slightly – reshape your artwork, really. Creating your art in isolation is not you bringing your ideas to life; it is you hand holding an idea and helping it bring itself in all its glory. Let yourself be the mere tool and watch the magic happen.

What are the distractions?

Everything. The incessant construction noises. The occasional (or constant, depending upon what part of the world you live in) horns from the road. A random flock of birds chirping. Having to go drop your brother at the mall. The call for lunch is in 20 mins.

These blockers of true creativity aren’t just in your physical environment. They can also be mental. A bad meeting happened in the day. Someone said, “Your work is not good enough. I would’ve given up already.” A fellow artist won an award for their work and you feel you don’t measure up. A follower said they like your new style better and the fear of sticking to it or you could fail.

Moreover, the search for better tools of art is also a distraction. It comes from a place of insecurity, and disbelief in yourself. Which word is better: A or B? Should I backspace it? Should this tune be up a notch? Should I use a different transition in this microsecond? These are just the expectation of pleasing the people playing out. Real artists have guts. They make art to make art. Not please the people.

The point is this: Anything that taints your art, compromises the sanctity of the process, is a distraction.

So, how do you create the first draft?

The life cycle of creative ideas is this: Inspiration > Marination >The (un)-glorious first draft > Multiple next drafts/Revisions > Finished?? > What the hell do I do now???

More on the Inspiration and marination stage in a different post. Let’s get down to the (un)-glorious first draft.

If we haven’t established this already, the first draft must be created in isolation. Locked away: mostly emotionally, preferably physically and especially mentally. My system of producing the first draft has three rules:

1. Lock up
2. Apply ass to chair (Dorothy Parker)
3. DO NOT BACKSPACE

Lock up

Solitude is a non-negotiable to the first draft. I prefer a time and place where I can hear nothing and have to worry about nothing. Mostly, this is my table with the AC cranked up, some noise-canceling earphones, perfect light, and the door locked. I prefer a space of absolute control. This is a very high-maintenance kind of solitude, I think. Your version could differ. Define your own solitude.

The only mandate is this: Nothing should find you in that time and place.

Apply ass to the seat

Dorothy Parker says, Writing is the art of applying the ass to the seat.

I think it’s not just writing. Applying ass to the seat is a golden rule for all creative work, especially in today’s world. Here is my scatter-brain understanding.

• All creative people need to live always-on lifestyles today. This means the temptation to go check another notification or see if someone tagged you somewhere or reply to another mail is GINORMOUS. These urges creep all the time: before you start creating and worse, in the middle of your process hours. LEARN TO FIGHT THEM. In all probability, there is no new information that you can delay consuming for a bit and not breathe. How? Apply ass to seat and practice it. Repeatedly. You’ll get better once you start seeing its results.
• As of writing this, I do not know where my phone is. I had an insane temptation to take a last look at it before I sat down to work. But then I asked myself Why? What could I possibly miss out on that is crucial to my creation processes? The answer was nothing. So, I let it be lost.
• If you’ve been at work for a while and the focus appears to fizzle out, leave the desk for a bit. Do not go back to the online world though. Stay mentally applied to the chair. Just recharge yourself: Grab a quick snack. Listen to Mozart (or Dua Lipa). Scribble. Water the desk plant. Whatever you need. Just do not taint yourself with the infinite clutter of social media and the connected world. But remember to take a quick break instead of dissociating on your desk, jumping from tab to tab and eventually giving up.
• Applying ass to seat also means you do not judge what comes out of the process. Continue to create. Everyday. Relentlessly. You are not better than yourself, you’re in no place to judge your work. Resist the seduction of connection and keep going.

DO NOT BACKSPACE

I consider the first draft process failed if I start trying to make it better every step of the way. I know then that I have let my emotions and the world’s expectations and my fear of not pleasing the audience get in the way of allowing myself to be a medium of expression for the idea I birthed. I must not hinder or affect it in any way. The first draft is supposed to be full of insanely amazing possibilities, not a rigid final artwork. It’s a draft. No one might ever see it. Do it for yourself. Real artists do not hide from themselves behind the excuses of ‘But this will make people like it better.’ They do as they feel. Writing. Sketching. Dancing. Design. Singing. You name it.

Quick last thoughts

Come to think of it, the three rules are barriers to blocking out anything that could redefine or change the course of the original idea. Lock out: A physical barrier. Apply ass to seat: A mental barrier. Do not backspace: An emotional barrier. And that is all the (un)-glorious first draft asks of you: Loyalty to the art, not the life it will out in the world. (I also think this is great parenting advice but I am 20, with no kids, so I refrain from saying it out in public, lol)

What should you do before and after the first draft? I will talk about it in other posts. I promise to link them here once they’re up. Until then, go make the first drafts of your ideas. Make them for just one person: Yourself.

Signing off,

Anshika