Creativity has and still continues to be described as this holy grail of existence that culture has made us believe that we are either blessed with or not. But I think its a lie and would like to differ quite a bit.
On the surface it really feels and looks right. In fact a few years back people including me used to introduce themselves as “ oh hey, my name is Gilbert and am a creative.’ Yeah, I know its a bit cringe.
Creativity as a word has been associated with originality, inventiveness and vision which make it even more complex, scary. This makes it a seemingly unattainable level of ingenuity that’s only reserved for people like Albert Einstein.
However, it also means expressiveness which definition I choose to lean towards. Expressiveness simply means the quality of effectively conveying a thought or a feeling. See, it’s now relatable right?
It doesn’t matter what medium it is, everyone has a way they express themselves.I am a video creator and I’d like to think that my videos are an extensions of me.
Video is a way I express myself, convey my thoughts and how I feel. For you it might be different, it might be through fashion, dance, photography, art you name it and may occasionally find yourself wondering why sometimes you are able to create and other times,you are not able to.
This at times makes you question whether that means that you are not creative enough.
I must say that just like how feelings fluctuate, your creativity level fluctuates. Sometimes you are creative and other times your idea vault is blocked.
Yet,on some days, your creative juices are flowing like the Nile and you can output a project in the least amount of time and other times, you don’t even have a an idea for a couple of weeks.
As video creators and photographers most times the quality of our output is tied to how we feel about said projects.
I have found that projects are I am most excited about, come out way better than the ones I don’t like very much.
So, just like feelings and their expressions, sometimes you are able to express yourself very well and others you may not be able to and that’s okay. The term for this phenomenon is Creative blocks they are normal.
SO WHENEVER I FIND MYSELF IN THIS KIND OF POSITION, THIS IS WHAT I NORMALLY DO
1. Ask Questions.
When it comes to client work, I tend to ask as many questions in the briefing as I possibly can. This helps me understand the scope of work, what they are trying to achieve, what they are trying to communicate so that I can quote appropriately.
But also during this process I am trying to find something I genuinely like about it, it might be the story, the cause if its an NGO, the vision, the people I am going to work with, the location you name it.
I always want to at least have one thing that would motivate me to do it, something I can latch on to, call it something that reminds of why I loved the project in the first place. If I don’t, I gladly say no.
2. Start Small.
When it comes to personal projects, I’ve learnt to stay away from pursuing huge and mostly unattainable goals whenever am in that mental state.
So I start small, find one thing and push myself to do it up to completion despite the loss of motivation along the way. Sticking to it until the end, just like this video you are watching.
I’ve found that by doing this I always find myself getting back into my zone. And start making videos again. This has worked for me, so why not try it?
