For us creative types, far too many times we find ourselves on the receiving end of creative stagnancy.
We throw things at the walls to see what sticks… and not everything sticks. But sometimes, something DOES stick. Maybe you suspect other people would more of that which is sticking…
Problem is… you can’t keep making more. Maybe because we’re bored, or there just isn’t time, or both. Maybe we’ve lost the spark that once made that thing good… or it lost us.
It’s easy to come up with something. A draft, an outline, whatever. Maybe you’ve got an idea for a new series. A new lore. A new blog or website. Maybe you want to make a new outrage channel ranting about the state of the world or just something oddly specific. And maybe you’ve come up with a name for it. Carved your own fancy little identity with a style. Maybe you’ve uploaded a sample video to show some few random lucky candidates on YouTube that your new idea is real, and it’s developing.
Then you look around and see a thousand channels have already done it. Far better than you ever could. Far more consistency. Far better quality. Far better scripts. You name it.
Here’s the thing: sometimes creativity grabs us. We sit down with a notepad and think “yeah, I’m thinking it’s time. I’m gonna make something. It’ll be an outrage channel.” And then maybe you jot down four potential videos you could make on some random topics.
But the real challenge for anyone who’s creative, lies in execution.
Making something out of something
Turns out, you need a video editor – even worse, you need to learn how to use that video editor, because those things are complicated, man.
You need to learn how to use it wisely and efficiently… and sure, you could hire someone... but that cost money! It’s no joke.
But let’s say, hypothetically, you’ve learned your editing software. So now, you have to scrape the internet for videos – evidence, and all that good stuff. Just make sure it’s all fair-use, or else you’ll end up in copyright hell.
You also have to make sure that information is accurate, or else you’ll just be making an ass out of yourself. The last thing you want to be is canceled for being wrong. It’s no joke.
It will take hours of work to organize all that content into something meaningful and understandable. Maybe even days. Maybe even months or a year, assuming that the idea stays in your head for that long.
It requires skill, too. Not only do you need the content to be logical, but you also need good pacing so that the ADHD zoomers (which will likely be 90% of your audience) don’t click off in the first minute.
Some advice out there suggests you put your finished projects away for a while so you can look at it with a fresher pair of eyes, because sometimes our brain goes "that's good enough" just to stop the mental anguish of watching it over and over again.
It's good advice, because trust me, you WILL inevitably come back to an older project and realize the whole thing is mumbo jumbo. Unsalvageable. A terrible idea.
Don’t look back (or you’ll be turned into a pillar of salt)
But let's say on the off chance... you've done it. By some miracle, you've completed your little project, and you’re satisfied with hit, and now you’re ready to upload it.
Alright, you’ve uploaded something. It practically consists of you screaming at the void. But at least it’s out there, right? It’s got 1 whole view... and that’s probably you. No matter, the algorithm will bless it… eventually.
And the good news is... you still have some ideas. Three more, as a matter of fact.
Well... it turns out that one of these ideas sucks. Another one is a topic that has been discussed to death. The third one... the third one sucks a little less, so you go and try to make something out of that.
Halfway through you realize it's not going to be as good as the first one. You then realize that if you do manage to finish this thing, you're going to be out of ideas.
Ultimately, you lose interest. Turns out your whole channel sucks and it’s better off being deleted so you aren’t reminded of its forsaken existence.
Consistency inconsistency
Maintaining consistent creativity is hell, man. The old saying usually goes, “quality is greater than quantity”, but I’ve seen more proof of the opposite being true. Either you pour your heart or soul into something, or you make it cheap and pump it out like fast food. You want to stay true to yourself? You don’t want to sacrifice your dignity just to appeal to the algorithms? You’ll suffer greatly for it.
As I said briefly in “Reflections on Writing”, In this digital age where you probably don’t remember 80% of what you see and the other 20% of what you see is probably AI generated: art has… well… I don’t want to take the boomer approach and say it’s lost ALL meaning… but most of it.
The unfortunate road human evolution has taken is that the mission is no longer to create things that appeal to human emotion in unfathomable nuance. What's more important now is doing the bare minimum and getting paid for it.
Those who create when the creed hasn’t ate (don’t ask)
What sanity would I, or anyone have left, if we dedicated more of our time to originality⸮ I envy all the YouTubers who have got the time to consistently make content. Especially those who do it by themselves, while having a job. There are some out there that do it for years and have raked in little to no views except maybe once. That “one hit wonder”, and they never reach it again… but they keep going.
What is the motivation? Too pure for this world, that is for sure.
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