I had planned to do a whole bunch of blog posts this week but dismal, rainy days (with entirely too many life interruptions) have a habit of derailing best-laid plans. Alas, even when skies are clear and time is abundant, I have a serious problem prioritizing my To-Do List. I blame it on what I call “creative ADD” – where there are entirely too many creative concepts in my brain vying for top spot. (Then there’s the added problem of when I start on a project, I ended up getting an idea for another!) To paraphrase the White Queen, “Why, sometimes I [create] as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
Actually, for me…make it ten.
I have no problem prioritizing when it comes to paid jobs or for specific events (i.e. deadlines). But open-ended creative ideas have a habit of piling up to the point that I get buried under them. Some have given the advice of, “just pick one!” and I daresay I’ve attempted that. But as mentioned earlier, while in the middle of researching for one project, a random photo or drawing will pop and off my brain goes to create another photoshoot/costume/art project.
I’d be lying if there aren’t some days I wish I could shut my creative brain off! The projects are of so many different varieties – costumes, illustrations, photoshoots, music videos, etc. – and in my typical fashion, NONE of them easy! (Now I do keep all of these ideas logged in specified places as not to lose any of the ideas. I have extensive libraries on my computer and Photobucket of reference folders full of photographs, Word documents, doodles, etc. But as has been happening lately, they are only getting larger, with nothing crossed off the proverbial list.)
I’m beginning to fear that I’ve pigeonholed myself into the Idea phase. I come up with a plethora of concepts and reference to support them, but never seem to get very far past that phase due to yet another idea (and another and another and another) surfacing. There’s so much that goes into creating a good post, from coming up with content to research to good photos to working links, etc. I have completed a few ideas from concept to finished product, but they are fewer than I’d care to admit. Having a deadline definitely helps, though strangely a self-assigned deadline like, “I’m going to finish this costume by ___ (fill in the blank with arbitrary date)” doesn’t seem to work at all. My will circumnavigates my brain in its realisation that it’s not a hard-set deadline. Oh how my creative proverbial cup overfloweth!
And on that note, I’m going to go make myself some tea.
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