NOV 8th 1-2-3: The Process: Create, Consume, Discard
1: The Process ( 4 minute read )
“To create great art, one must consume and discard much art.”
It is a quote you likely saw when signing up for this very newsletter, but what does it mean?
This is The Process, a loop with 3 parts through which everything we create is created.
Create, Consume, Discard.
We like to think of creating art as just that, creating. We tend to disregard two other important components of the creating process without which we would not be able to create great art: consuming and discarding.
Create:
When we create anything we are creating an artifact. Each time we create an artifact of our own, we are casting a vote for our identity as a creative.
James Clear writes in his book Atomic Habits that, “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your identity.”
As we continue to create artifacts, the pile grows as evidence of you improving as a creative in your field of study.
Now I do not mean to disparage studying at all, as you will see in the next section of this entry, but creating will always serve as the cornerstone to learning your craft.
It is like my grandmother used to always say, “The best way to learn how to cook is to get in the kitchen.”
The same goes for all art creation and practice, just be sure to put your all into everything you do to ensure you are building good fundamental habits for your artform or creative field.
So we know how important creating is, what about consuming and discarding?
Consume:
To understand why consuming is so integral to The Process, it is important to know this singular fact:
Creating is simply combining preexisting art you’ve consumed in a way you find fun and interesting.
If you think deeply about it, anything that feels new and fresh has already been done before, it just hasn’t been packaged that way for a while or in that particular way.
That or, as Austin Kleon puts it in his book Steal Like An Artist, “The writer Jonathan Lethem has said that when people call something “original”, nine out of ten times they just don’t know the references or the original sources involved.”
So what does this mean?
It means you get to consume a lot of art!
For your own enjoyment, for study, for inspiration, for The Process.
For a real world example, Brandon Sanderson got his idea for Mistborn when reading the Harry Potter series. As he was reading, he wondered what it would be like if the dark lord won and the hero failed, what kind of world would that be?
Then he thought to combine that idea and world, with the idea of a heist like that of Ocean’s Eleven, and thus Mistborn was, well, born!
So here are a few questions to help you think more deeply as you consume art along your journey:
What did it make you feel?
What did it make you think?
Did you like that or not?
Why?
Always break it down for yourself so that way, you can harness that for your own creating!
Lastly, we have, discarding.
Discard:
As you consume and create there will be this other part of The Process that most creatives can struggle with, and that is the business of discarding.
As you create artifacts, you begin to build bodies of work. As you build these bodies of work, you will inevitably feel more and more attached to the ideas or artifacts within.
Now here’s the hard word: don’t be.
Not everything that we create is gold, and we know this deep inside. The most pure of joys for creatives is the act of creating, however, we must be careful to not hold onto it just because we created it.
We want to look at everything as a great starting point, and if the idea doesn’t fit in the main body of work or distracts from it, then discard it.
Stephen King had a rather straight forward approach to this in his book, On Writing: A memoir of the Craft. “Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.”
Another way to put it?
You get to create a lot, to discard a lot, so that you can keep what is best.
Now I do not mean if you draw a bad drawing to physically throw it away, keep your artifacts, but you do not have to include them in your primary bodies of work.
Be it a novel, a portfolio, an album, make sure to keep the best of the best and discard the rest.
All masters have discarded many more works than we know them for creating. This is part of the process.
Exhortations:
So there you have it, The Process includes creating, consuming, and discarding.
Here are a few exhortations for those of you reading this.
Remember the beauty is in the journey, not the destination. It is fun to create and that can be easy to forget, so remind yourself of this. I will be sure to remind you as well!
Once you have created that body of work, there is always another body of work just waiting to be brought alive by you. This is The Process. You can trust it.
Lastly, creating is in our nature, it is why it brings us such joy and pleasure. Live in line with what you were created to do.
Have a wonderful day and weekend, and go create some artifacts!
The Process awaits you.
2: Creative Prompts From Us (ex. Write a short story, a poem, a song, or draw a quick illustration of these! Let your imagination run free.)
I. What are two of your favorite bodies of work? How can you combine them to create something that reflects you?
II. What is your comfort movie, book, show, video game? What is your favorite part of it? Now write down three bullet points for why and see how you can use that to make something new.
3: Inspirational Quotes From Others
I. “What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere. All creative work builds on what came before. Nothing is completely original.” - Austin Kleon, Author
II. “Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic.” - Jim Jarmusch, Film Director and Screenwriter
III. “There is nothing new under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:9
Thank you for reading! <3