Hi everyone. It’s Janine from JSK Stories and welcome to today’s creativity lesson: Create Junk.
One of the biggest antagonists to creativity is perfection. It can be paralyzing. You can have an idea for a new script, or a design for a costume, or the way to perform a scene that you think could be really interesting. Maybe even brilliant.
But then you think, maybe it won’t.
Maybe it will be stupid.
Maybe people will laugh.
Maybe it won’t work.
Maybe, maybe, maybe.
And so you never write the script or make a rendering for that costume or try out that acting choice.
Because if it isn’t perfect, then why bother?
While we all certainly want to do our best and have our creative work be well received by other people, the pressure to have everything you create be worthy of a bestseller or a Tony award causes too many people to never even start. And by never starting, we lose out on the opportunity to learn and grow and, above all, create.
So how do we overcome this paralysis?
One way to help you beat the antagonist of perfection is to give yourself permission to create junk. As in terrible. Awful. Never gonna show it to anyone and probably will throw it in the trash. Junk.
Why would we want to do this? Because expectation can dictate experience. When we expect something to be amazing we are often disappointed (just think of the last movie or book that you were super excited to see or read – did it live up to the hype you created in your mind?). But when we have low expectations, it can be freeing. When we allow ourselves to create junk, it’s not a problem when we actually do.
You write the first sentence and it’s junk? Oh well, try again. Your first sketch of the costume looks like garbage? Well, what does the next attempt look like? Your acting choice doesn’t work like you thought? Well, what happens when I try out this objective?
And if those second attempts don’t work? Well, throw it in the junk pile. And then try again.
Because the truth is, sometimes we have to wade through a lot of junk to get to something good. Something worth keeping. Something worth sharing. That’s not only okay, it’s part of the process. But if you never allow yourself to make junk, then you’ll never know what you might learn by trying something out – and where it might eventually lead.
So…what junk can you create today?
Creativity challenge: Depending on your preferred craft, try creating something truly awful. Write the most cliche piece of dialogue. Draw the most derivative costume. Make the most melodramatic acting choice. Really go for it and make it as bad as you can. Then laugh, take a deep breath, throw it away, and do it again.
Want to share your creative junk? You can submit it here. Who knows, we just might share it in an upcoming article or video!