I finished my play! Today's episode is about finishing creative projects and all of the decisions and mental shifts that happen as you work towards getting to the end of a major work.
I speak about:
Mindset and making a commitment to finishing an artistic project.
Making it the best version of the story it already is and not leaving things open for the other versions it could become.
Realising I was writing in a way that was leaving the draft open to future changes I ultimately wouldn’t be making. So instead, I started to write in a way that closed down those options.
Grieving the versions it's not going to become.
Effort in versus distance travelled. Each new draft feels like travelling half way towards an end point, and eventually moving half way becomes impossible/invisible which is when you realise you've 'arrived' at your final draft.
Hitting a point where edits are only making the creative work 'different' rather than 'better'.
Getting feedback towards the tail end of a project and the difference between: Feedback we agree with and we take, feedback we agree with and we don't take, feedback we don't agree with and we take, and feedback we don't agree with and we don't take.
Deciding which parts of the project are worth getting right and which parts you're comfortable having some wonky bits, because perfection isn’t the purpose of art.
There are always going to be things about your project that aren't perfect. Sometimes we think perfecting everything will protect us from criticism, but that's not true. It's up to us as artists to decide what about our project we're comfortable with leaving 'imperfect' and loving it anyway.
This episode was originally recorded in October 2021. You can watch the video diary here: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CVWXA4Rh14g/
You can learn more about my About page or say hi and ask me a question via @emilysheehan__ on Instagram.