Iterate

When you're starting out in any creative endeavour there's a gap between what you want to make and what you actually make. Ira Glass calls this the Gap:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.” - Ira Glass

When we encounter the uncomfortable feeling of the gap we tend to shy away. We don't want to share our work, we get disheartened and maybe even just give up.

In your head it seems totally rational. I put in some effort, I got nothing back "I guess it's not for me".

But creative work doesn't produce linear rewards.

Creative work requires you to put in your reps.

Even your favourite creator started off sucking.

It would be crazy for an athlete to try a move once and give up if it didn't come off straight away but why do so many creators do exactly this.

Nobody is born creative, you learn how to be.

Every great creator follows the same path.

1. They have a vision but the work they produce kinda sucks
2. They stick at it iterating over and over
3. Eventually the work starts to resemble their vision [closing the gap]

This article is me iterating on my writing skills. There's a gap between what I want to write and how this post will turn out. I'm working to close that gap. It's 9.41pm, I don't really want to write but I know I need to get in my reps for today. You can't multiply by zero.

Build in public, share your work and hone your ability to iterate.

“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” - Winston Churchill