Merlin Mann on getting creative stuff done

Skip ahead to 12:00, and it’s great. His advice about getting started is golden, and the easiest-to-forget advice that there is no magic.

From The Sound of Young America.

June 19, 2009 @ 4:38 pm | Comments (25)
Filed under: How-To

25 Responses to “Merlin Mann on getting creative stuff done”

Faith
June 19th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
A lot of it is true, but the same stuff doesn’t work for everyone. I constantly make myself sit down and write just because I want to do something productive, but that’s usually the stuff I end up throwing away afterwards because there’s nothing in it. But I suppose it would be different if I had any kind of success and a less fucked up life and felt like I’m doing an actual job and not just working for the future I’ll probably never have. Still I don’t think it’s fair to compare creating something out of thin air to running. Aside from motivation there’s also inspiration involved, and you can’t make yourself have that.
Aaghaaz M
June 19th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
At about the the thirteenth minute mark, I paused it and wrote out three pages. This guy’s good.
Joel
June 19th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
This could not have come into my brain at a better time….!
Erik
June 19th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
This was absolutely perfect timing. I’ve been trying to start on my first feature length screenplay, but all I’ve been able to do is bounce ideas around in my head. I guess I just didn’t want to put pen to paper until I had it all figured out in my head first, but what Mann said seems to make a whole lot more sense.
san francisco
June 19th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
What Joel said….!
jape
June 19th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Reminds me of something a strategist in an ad agency held to be true: “If a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth doing badly.” – meaning that trying to start with perfection is a fool’s errand.
Raj
June 19th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
Wow. That was an excellent talk.

I identified with a lot of what he said. I’ll admit it, some days I sit and spend hours doing things that have nothing to do with the actual idea I’m working on but things I think will make it great. In the end you really do just say to yourself this sucks and won’t ever work because it feels like you haven’t achieved anything worthwhile. When you really think about it, you were just distracting yourself from getting anything productive done in the first place.

His comment about being miserable and leaving mean comments on people’s blogs was pretty funny!
Matt Redd
June 20th, 2009 at 1:38 am
@Faith

Your name is an ironic joke, right?
Faith
June 20th, 2009 at 9:20 am
@Matt Redd

In terms of universal justice, maybe.
gilliebean
June 20th, 2009 at 10:32 am
@Matt – Tee hee…

John. Thanks for sharing this. We all need reminding sometimes.
Chip Street
June 20th, 2009 at 10:49 am
Inspirational. Not everything will work for everyone, of course.

His comments on “giving yourself a deadline” (write for two minutes, even if it’s shit, just write) put me in a mind of the “Write or Die” widget –

http://lab.drwicked.com/writeordie.html

Set a time limit, then write – no editing allowed. If you stop, it makes a terrible noise. Interesting little tool to help with just those sorts of deadlines.
Ed Araquel
June 21st, 2009 at 1:01 am
The part about not worrying about producing crap reminds me of Ira Glass’s talks on storytelling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hidvElQ0xE and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9blgOboiGMQ

Thanks for the sound bite John.

e
James Billy Hill II
June 21st, 2009 at 8:24 am
Overcoming the fear plunging into the blank page takes gumption and discipline. You can’t do anything without doing it.

Some of the worst stuff I’ve written has come from just sitting down and writing because I need to put words to page and stop pontificating about writing but also some of the best stuff I’ve written has come from sitting down and writing because I forced myself to write one page or one scene no matter how inspired I felt.

Like he said there’s no magic. Anyway, all that to say his talk was spot on. Thank John for posting it.
pnc
June 21st, 2009 at 9:02 am
Lovely.

Came at the right time as I’m digging into another screenplay with the compulsion to be too perfect in my execution of it.

Here’s to sloppy writing in 10 minute blocks!
Kristan
June 21st, 2009 at 10:51 am
Great stuff, thank you for sharing/spreading it. (And I hope the first 12 min weren’t that valuable, b/c I took your advice and skipped it.)
EC
June 21st, 2009 at 11:09 am
“You have to write your way out of a thinking block because you can’t think your way out of a writing block.”

AMAZING! Just what I needed right now. Thank you for sharing, John!
Andreas Climent
June 21st, 2009 at 1:17 pm
I enjoyed this quite a bit. Merlin’s advice really resonated with me. Thanks for the tip John!
Pier
June 21st, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Nice speech!

Most of his ideas come from this book http://www.amazon.com/Artists-Way-Spiritual-Creativity-Workbook/dp/0874776945

… or they miracously share the same pinciples.

BTW Picasso is not Italian, he’s Spanish. :)
Joseph
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:58 am
Thanks for posting this. It was great to hear and something I will go back to every once in awhile when I feel like I’m a terrible writer or that everything I write needs to be amazing.
Jay D
June 22nd, 2009 at 2:01 pm
I feel writing every day is detrimental unless it’s your full time gig–in which commission and deadlines reign. It’s a great achievement if you can, but writing is not much different from physical exercise. You need Off days for better On days.

I battled this for some time; you go on with your day with writing on your mind at all hours. As you do errands, at your day job, as you socialize, when you workout, etc. You have to commit to not to write and then plan your next writing time accordingly. It just works better when you release yourself from ‘should-I’ or ‘shouldn’t I.’ Schedule and commit. Consider larger, efficient blocks when you do write. Don’t write everyday.
Max Penny
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:05 am
Reminds me of a mini-documentary called “Failure” where a bunch of writers like ZZ Packer and Ruth Forman talk about failing badly and how central that is to what they do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPBGgImadRk

There was also a Michael Jordan ad on the same subject. Which kind of suggests it’s a mundane insight. But that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? Failure happens to everybody no matter how good they are. The secret of success isn’t to not fail, it’s to expect to fail and not let that stop you.
Massimo
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:38 am
Nice! Thanks for sharing!
andrew
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:53 pm
bit of a non sequitur, but anyone else think he sounds a lot like ryan adams?
Dobbs
July 15th, 2009 at 9:47 am
Nice talk. Thanks. Part of it reminded me of something David Milch said: “We do not think our way to right action. We act our way to right thinking.” He was referring to writer’s block.
John Paul Van Johnson
July 20th, 2009 at 4:02 am
I always thought that writing blocks are the foils of those who dont write for themselves. I don’t think who you write for affects your quelity in the pilosophical sense, but if the writing is its own reward than writing blocks are just times your body tells you:”go watch Thunder Cats for the 500th time”(i prefer E.R. but my body isn’t a drama enthusiastic). Love your body – it has some great insights about writing, sex orientations and household pets cannibalism.