On Embarrassingly Long Creation Timelines šø Issue #1
Creating something always takes longer than I think it will... But I'm slowly learning how to work with myself on this.
Between the conception of this first issue of The Spinneret and the tangible composition of it ā not to even speak of when this will be published ā two weeks have passed. A (probably automated) person at Revue wants to know if thereās anything they can help me with, and we all know thatās office speak for, āWhy havenāt you done anything yet?!ā
Hereās the irony: My intended theme for this first issue was, from the start, the embarrassing length of my creation timelines ā the ridiculous distance between conception and execution, between execution and release. Case in point.
Because of how slow my process is, I end up missing a lot of deadlines and opportunities, but without those same deadlines and opportunities as incentive, I will probably continue to work at a snail's pace. That, frankly, is not very good for the career I'm trying to build.
Hereās a story from this past quarter: A writing opportunity came my way, and the deadline was tight. Given that my creative process always takes longer than I anticipate, there was little chance that Iād make it. But I tried anyway ā and failed.
By the time the deadline came around, the best I had was a handwritten vomit draft of the complete short story. And, as the term āvomit draftā suggests, such a manuscript is nowhere close to presentable before anyoneās eyes but my own.
But I had a draft of a story that hadnāt tangibly existed before, and probably wouldnāt have existed by that time, if not for the deadline and prompt of that writing opportunity! And so, despite not being able to turn the story in for the opportunity it was written for, I was able to revise it and turn it in for a different opportunity whose deadline was two weeks after the original one's deadline.
Hereās what Iāve been learning about how to overcome my ridiculously long creation timelines:
I probably won't do intense work without a deadlineā¦ But I probably won't make the deadline either. And thatās okay, as long as I make something. New additions to my portfolio are always useful, eventually.
Even when thereās a slim chance of making a deadline, a key strategy is to delude myself that I can make the deadline anyway. It helps keep me committed to producing new work.
Deadlines and prompts are usually great catalysts for the creation process, under a certain condition: I have to fully, consciously decide to seize the opportunity. Otherwise, with my heart and head only half in the game, I probably won't even come close to my optimum productivity or creativity.
And there we have it: Issue #1 of The Spinneret. I hope this newsletter is helpful to at least some people, and that readers have a better idea of what future issues will be like.
Perhaps, also, choosing this theme for the first issue was a cop-out of sorts. Because, knowing what we now know about my timelines, it's really anyone's guess as to when Issue #2 will be ready. š¬
Until next time,
The Spider Kid
P.S. I'll be featuring on the Writers Project of Ghana for their next online series on Thursday. Tune in on IG live if you're interested!