I don’t know a single creative who doesn’t stress out about being productive. I blame capitalism. We’ve all been told that unless we’re producing producing producing 24/7 then we are failing. This is because capitalism translates labor into products for sale, but art is not made on an assembly line. We’ve misconstrued output with progress made, when what art requires most is letting go and allowing the creative process to take whatever disorganized, chaotic path it requires. With creativity, letting go of progress is what actually leads to making progress, not imitating a cog in a machine.
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Back in my product design days, I had one goal: getting a product onto the shelf. No matter how much work it took, as long as we ended up with a solution, we had met our goal. Often, we went through hundreds of ideas. We covered the walls with countless concept sketches. We brainstormed from every angle possible. We studied consumers for any opportunity to innovate. If we could meet the consumer’s needs in a new or better way, we could displace another product on the shelf more easily. It didn’t matter if we threw away hundreds of ideas in pursuit of a solution. Those ideas didn’t make our clients money. Only an idea that made it to the shelf made money. A quantity of solutions was useless. One good idea was GOLD.
Sometimes, the designers on my team really struggled with not getting credit for the many ideas they came up with during the ideation phase. They got hung up on the quantity of work, wanting validation for the volume of paper on the wall. They were valuing the wrong measure. Productivity is not measured quantitatively. Productivity is a qualitative measure. Even when you have a quota to reach, that quota must be reach sufficiently. A measure of quality must be achieved, or the effort doesn’t count.
Applied to writing, a qualitative measure of productivity says that daydreaming for three days to figure out your magic system is more productive than writing 10,000 words with the wrong magic system. Scribbling notes in your notebook for a week is not time wasted. It is perhaps more productive than forging ahead when you don’t have enough direction yet. Yes, some of art is exploratory, and there are times when you have to write your way to answers, but word count is not the only measure of productivity. The volume you produce does not guarantee success, no matter what kind of art you pursue. Quality results are the true measure of progress, not how many hours or works or drafts or studies you invest. Practicing emotional detachment from your word count leads to freedom, connection, inspiration…and joy.
Early in my writing career, I struggled with my desire to measure my progress quantitatively. I found myself craving approval from my editor for how many pages I’d written, even when I knew most of those words were wrong. It took me a while to learn that the value of those words is in the progress I make toward finding the right solutions, not the number of words achieved. Now, I write much less. I think much more. I daydream and doodle and study other people’s art. I allow myself to value the quality of the results over the quantity of my words. Every book that makes it to the shelf is a success. It doesn’t matter how many words it took to get there.
Quality over quantity is a phrase we’re all familiar with, and yet it is so easy to bully ourselves about the volume of work we produce. Instead of focusing on word count, can you give yourself qualitative goals, such as: I want to brainstorm more interesting subplots. Or, I want to explore a new medium. Or, Today I’m going to find this scene’s purpose. Setting goals that have a qualitative measure can relieve stress and allow our creative minds the freedom to make the connections and progress we seek. What are the qualitiative goals you’re pursuing now? I’d love to hear in the comments!
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