How to Keep a Stalled Creative Project Alive
Have you ever been in the middle of a creative project and realized that you hated it? Not the act of creating itself, or the process in making the project, but the actual project? This happens now and then, and it usually catches me off guard when it does. The start of a new creative project is full of excitement and wonder over the greatness of what you will make, so it’s hard to imagine it going awry.
But sometimes, you start to make something and the vision quickly dies. The energy drains and you suddenly realize that you hate what you are making. The excitement devolves into a feeling of dread, and you start to think of your project as garbage long before its fully realized.
Yesterday, I was watching an interview with two members of one of my favorite bands. They were being asked about their new album, and one of the members seemed excited about it, while the other didn’t. The unexcited one said that he was completely burnt out with the process and he wished this album had gone a little differently.
He didn’t come right out and say it, but you got the feeling that he hated the new record and wanted to forget it already.
This band is super prolific, and the guy who wasn’t excited has been producing records for other bands since he was a teenager. I know that he loves the recording process, and takes a lot of pride in his work. It was kind of shocking to see him so apathetic about something he’d made.
But this is an unfortunate component of creative work:
Sometimes you make something and hate it when it’s all said and done.
You’d think this would be impossible, but somewhere along the way, you get knocked off course. Your project starts to suck and you can’t salvage it. You end the process with something that you hate and don’t want to share. Sometimes the dread over a project can be so bad that you refuse to show it to anyone - which is the ultimate death of a creative endeavor.
Before you get to that point, there are some things you can try. Here are a few techniques I use to resuscitate a dying project.
Gentle stop, for a short time.
If you feel your project start to slide away from you, it might help to give yourself a quick break to think. Stop all of the actual creating for 30 minutes to an hour. In that time, give your project some intense thought. Ask yourself what’s wrong with it, what you aren’t liking about it. Try to nail it down to the few things that you know you dislike.
When you narrow it down that far, focus on those things for a few minutes each. Try to figure out exactly what you are hating about them. Maybe a transition between paragraphs is wonky, maybe the lighting is off, maybe you need to get some higher grit sandpaper to make a few pieces smoother.
If you can figure out what exactly is bothering you about the project, you can come up with ways to fix it. At the very least, you might be able to hide the problem. In some situations, hiding is just as good as fixing.
Hard stop, for a long time.
By a “long time” I mean a weekend, three days at most. Take a break from your project and try not to think about it at all. You’ll have a hard time doing this, especially if you hate what you are making. You’ll have to work to not think. But if you do start thinking about it, don’t dwell on the things that you hate.
Instead, try to get yourself back to the original vision. Think of what you set out to do in the first place, why you were so enthralled with this idea that you got started on it.
Sometimes, you can think of what you wanted to do and measure the disparity between your vision and reality. This can help you see what you need to do to get back on track. You might have just got in too deep for a moment, and need to remember why you began so you can change what you’ve screwed up.
A caution about this strategy though: Do not let yourself stop a project for longer than three days unless you are willing to let it die. The more time you spend away from it, the more you’ll want to quit completely. This is especially true if you hate it.
Show it to a friend, and say how bad it is.
Whenever I am in the middle of a creative project, I don’t want anyone to see it until it’s done. I thrive off of the wow factor when people see the finished work. I don’t want them to see it in the middle of the process and then lose that “Wow!” moment.
But if you are struggling, you might need to show it to someone who cares about you. This person doesn’t have to know anything about how you do your work. It’s more important that this person loves you unconditionally for this strategy to work.
When you show your project to them, explain that it’s not done, and tell them that you hate it. Talk an incredible amount of trash about it. Tear it down, call it stupid, say it’s worthless. Pick out little details that no one will ever notice and say how much they suck.
This will hopefully do two things for you:
You’ll be able to get it out of your system. You can throw a fit and tell your project that you wish you never made it, and that will feel good to get out.
The person who loves you will tell you how crazy you are for hating it. If they love you, they will love what you’ve made. Even if it’s silly. They will point out good things, they will laugh and say nice things about it. This might make you see the reality of the situation a little clearer. Odds are that your project isn’t nearly as bad as you said it was, and the person who loves you will help you see the great things about it.
Change it completely.
Sometimes you are in the middle of a project and you realize it’s not working the way you thought it would, and you need to change everything about it. That’s completely okay. It’s your work, you get to decide when things get changed, you get to decide when it is finished and what it will be.
So if you start out writing a profile of dairy farmers in Missouri and end up with an expose about rampant infidelity in the marriages of dairy farmers in the midwest, that’s okay. Shrug your shoulders and let it go. It’s not what you set out to make, but maybe it’s better than that would have ever been anyway.
Accentuate the good things.
When your project sucks, double down on the things that are working about it. Make them bigger, brighter, flashier. Bring all of the attention toward the things that are working. Odds are, if you do this well, people won’t notice the things that suck.
You’ll be like a magician, flourishing your hands and hiding whatever you’re palming. That’s a good thing. No one has to know how bad it is under the surface. Save that for yourself.
Accept it.
Sometimes you just have to let it go. You made a thing and it sucks. Oh well. It happens and we all do it. You will cringe when you think about this thing. That’s just how it goes. There are two things to keep in mind about this:
Make sure you learn everything you can about this project. Do a lengthy post-mortem on it. List the things that you could have done better and start learning how to improve. Keep your notes and go back through them, and try to learn something every single time you do. You’ll likely learn more from a crappy project than you will from something you are in love with. Valuable lessons are born in the fire of failure.
Resist the urge to not share it. Some things shouldn’t be shared ever and that’s okay. Hide them in the shadows of your workplace and call them practice if anyone ever sees them. But most things are good enough to be shared. Remember that you have created something that did not exist before you started, and that is beautiful, even if the thing itself is ugly. So share it with the world. Even if you cringe and don’t want to see it again. Share it, and move on.
Thanks for reading!
