Make More Art: Shovel a Mountain of Shit and Find an Ounce of Gold

Shovel a Mountain of Shit and Find an Ounce of Gold

If you’re prolific, you will create work that sucks. Most of it will be shit.

When I sit down to work, it might take 500 words, 2000 words, or 2 hours of tapping away at the keyboard before I stumble on something that doesn’t make me want to gouge my eyes out.

Maybe there are writers who sit down at their desk and watch brilliance flow from their fingertips. I’m not one of them. I don’t think there are many of them. And the rest of us secretly hate those people.

My average writing session starts with incoherent psychobabble. Each sentence has nothing to do with the one before. Other days, I just bitch and scribble.

But if I persist, eventually the work reveals itself. To be a prolific creator, you have to shovel a mountain of shit to find an ounce gold. That’s why it’s called a shitty first draft.

Flow

If you spend enough time making art, you’ll eventually hear someone talk about flow. “Flow is what makes life worth living,” says Steven Kotler. It’s addictive but productive.

Those moments of insight, those sparks of brilliance, and breakthroughs all happen when you’re…