Creative pros: you need 2 sets of standards.
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A double standard, in general, isn’t considered a good thing.
But sometimes it is.
For example: you need to produce something that requires creativity from you. It’s a novel, it’s a set of graphics, it’s a t-shirt design or a flyer for the marketing campaign or a new site design for your best client or new copy for a landing page.
It’s anything, it’s what you do, and you want it to be right.
You don’t just want it to be right, you want it to be creative and right. You want it to be intelligent and unique. You want it to be perfect.
So you sit down in your workspace and think, shuffle things around, click randomly, wait for inspiration. The desire for perfection blocks you, keeps you from completion. It keeps you from even starting.
How do you get past what you’re stuck on and get started without sacrificing the level of quality you want front the end product?
Institute a first-draft standard. Pull from the wisdom of Anne Lamott and produce plenty of terrible first drafts. The more the better, and the worse the better.
Realize that there are stages to completion.
There’s first draft (whatever that is in your particular form of creativity) and then there’s final product. In between first draft and final product is a whole lot of work. The problem with most creative professionals – artists, writers, designers, crafters, so on – is that we put the whole lot of work in the wrong place. We think we need to start with all the effort and strain and energy and forehead-creasing, sweat-inducing, panic-attacking, mind-numbing work of it all.
But what you is better is to let the work come in between those two standards. Go easy at first. Don’t skip the essential first draft step.Whatever your work is, break down the completion process so you have a preliminary standard and perfect (completed) standard.
