A friend sent this to me a few weeks ago with the note – “I think you do this well.”
It’s a manifesto of getting things done. There are some points there that align with my process. And some that I don’t adhere to.
Through my own creative work – novels, poetry, music – I’ve learnt how to put out work, how to create, how to revise, and how to finish. Much of this I adapt to my process of ghostwriting.
Point 10 – Failure counts as done. So do mistakes. – is powerful.
My approach is to work on the idea, the experiment, and finish it to see if it works. Honour the idea for what it is. If it works, then we can release it. We can ship it. If it doesn’t, then we learn why, and move on to the next idea. This doesn’t dismiss adjusting approaches, revising, adding different experiments.
It is simply a way of staying true to what the idea was and seeing it through until it is done.
This is not to say that there isn’t or shouldn’t be attention to detail. The point is that finishing the draft, and moving on to add that detail, is integral. Finishing something gives you more insight into how the whole piece works. There are structural understandings to the writing you find only when you have a draft finished. And picking at details on the way will keep you from these observations.
Failure counts as done. It’s not a judgement on you as an artist, a writer, a musician. In fact, you don’t have to show it to the world.
If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, then move on.