{"id":14167,"date":"2023-01-31T09:59:54","date_gmt":"2023-01-31T09:59:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/?p=14167"},"modified":"2023-01-31T16:35:58","modified_gmt":"2023-01-31T16:35:58","slug":"on-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/on-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"On Beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"

As exciting as the thought of any new project may be, the act of beginning, of turning a concept into reality, can be incredibly daunting. Why? It can be down to self-doubt or a crippling fear of the unknown.  Or perhaps, a classic loss of momentum (common at this time of year). Or maybe it\u2019s just the weight of expectations. Many working within the creative industries will know the inertia that comes with starting something. But, while some creatives have found these early-stage roadblocks insurmountable, equally, many have found ways to push past them. To demystify <\/span>beginning<\/span><\/i>, we spoke to author and critic <\/span>Amber Husain<\/span><\/a>; musician and label co-founder <\/span>Bok Bok<\/span><\/a>; illustrator and pattern designer <\/span>Enik\u0151 Katalin Eged<\/span><\/a>; and Brooklyn-based illustrator <\/span>Liv Garber<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Every piece of work, be it personal or professional, tends to be bound by a certain degree of expectation. And as useful as expectations are for anything in life, they can also become rather stifling. Set them too high, and you\u2019ve entered an environment that demands perfection and condemns mistakes. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI used to have a habit of over-monitoring my work to the point where I’d decide an image wasn’t worthwhile before I even started drawing anything,\u201d says Liv Garber. \u201cCreative paralysis comes from listening to those judgemental thoughts, so I’ve learned to start creating without any expectation. Like anything else, it gets easier with practice and experience.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Enik\u0151 Katalin Eged experiences a similar feeling. \u201cI\u2019m usually excited to start a new commission, but sometimes I get self doubt and imposter syndrome. I\u2019m more calm when I\u2019m just drawing for myself, as then I have no expectations, just the joy of creating.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s all a matter of framing<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The art of diminishing expectations isn\u2019t so much about doing away with them entirely (try justifying that to a client), but more about silencing the voice in your head that says you\u2019re incompetent, and accepting that mistakes and rough drafts are necessary for the evolution of any project.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes, this also means learning to let go. Bok Bok \u2013 DJ, producer and co-founder of seminal UK label Night Slugs \u2013 can speak to the power of the unfinished song. \u201c<\/span>So many beats have been abandoned,\u201d he says. \u201cThis happens to about 60% of the beats I start, but it’s all part of the process and I welcome it. I’m at peace with the knowledge that abandoned projects are how I get to the ones that are finished. With every production I can feel myself growing and improving as an artist, and this is motivating in itself.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

On unfinished projects, Garber believes that it\u2019s all a matter of framing. <\/span>\u201c<\/span>If a work goes unfinished or if I pivot to another direction, I’ll incorporate what didn’t fit into something else. There are rarely any true failures \u2013 it’s just about finding what fits within a larger idea.\u201d Their note of advice would be to save and organise these drafts for future use \u2013 a radical rethinking of what constitutes \u2018success\u2019 for any creative work.<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout the creative process, maintaining the same level of excitement from a project’s inception to its execution can prove challenging. So, making time for research, establishing a routine and setting yourself small goals along the way can help keep up the momentum. It also helps to carve out variety in the process. Eged and Garber share a similar approach of gathering inspirational material when beginning a new project, and carrying out a few rough sketches before moving on to the main artwork. <\/span>\u201cI like to break things down into steps: research, sketching, line work and colour. Having these goal posts makes it so much easier to take on new projects and preserve the magic of what it feels like to create something from scratch,\u201d says Garber. <\/span><\/p>\n

It can be easy to get tunnel vision<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It can be easy to get tunnel vision and think of nothing else besides the piece you\u2019re beginning. You may even feel a sense of guilt when carrying out tasks unrelated to the project in question. Amber Husain, who published her debut <\/span>Replace Me <\/span><\/i>in 2021, advocates finding inspiration in things outwith what she\u2019s working on. \u201cIf I don\u2019t have the right ideas to move forward with an essay, I try to delegate the search to a power beyond myself. Sometimes I think you have to wait for the answers to reveal themselves in the world while you\u2019re doing other things\u2026 As long as they reveal themselves within the deadline.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For Bok Bok, a simple, everyday act like riding his bike \u201calways helps with bringing things into sharper focus, from concepts through to melodies.\u201d So, whether it\u2019s going for a walk, having a contemplative shower or doing the dishes, stepping away from whatever you\u2019re working on for a moment can be beneficial to its progress in the long run.<\/span><\/p>\n

Adjacent to this idea of delegation is one of opening the project up to other people. Showing anyone your work in its nascent stages might sound horrifying. Why would you present something unfinished that you\u2019re not happy with? Truth is, a second opinion can offer some needed direction. For Husain, the involvement of an editor, or readers she can imagine a future dialogue with, is what gives her the confidence to keep going. \u201cIf you treat writing as a kind of social interaction, it starts to feel churlish to retreat into a corner,\u201d she says. \u201cI also think it\u2019s good to practice being given a good hammering by a reader (ideally one who doesn\u2019t identify as \u2018a writer\u2019) who will call out all your most cringe, uncommunicative or otherwise aesthetically offensive choices.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While there\u2019s no formula to permanently banish the debilitating fear or self-doubt felt during the early stages of most projects, there are measures that can be taken to help you persevere, involving a nebulous mix of optimism, discipline and consultation. The most crucial advice, and admittedly the most obvious, is to keep creating, in spite of making something you think is worthless or inadequate. Embedded in every \u2018worthless\u2019 sentence, sketch or beat are the building blocks for an exceptional, fully realised piece of work.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read More: Working 9 to 5…<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a new January slips away, Morna Fraser investigates overcoming the fear of beginning.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":14182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[139,138],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14167"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14167"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14207,"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14167\/revisions\/14207"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}