Creative Projects Thrive on Feedback: Finding People Who Can Help You

Would you describe yourself as “creative”? I’d bet that, even if you wouldn’t, you’re involved in a number of endeavours that require creative thought, time and energy. This could be:

• Business or entrepreneurial ventures
• Music or art projects
• Graphic design or website design
• Blogging or other non-fiction writing
• Fiction or poetry

The main projects I’m working on at the moment involve writing, which is an act of creation: I sit down with a blank screen, and I produce something. And in each case, I enjoy the creating process much more because of the collaborative elements involved.

There’s something unique and powerful about working with people when you create. There’s a special energy that is qualitatively different from working on your own. This can apply across different areas of life: hobbies, academic studies, and business. Yes, it can be intimidating – but it’s hugely worthwhile:

The terror of looking stupid in front of other people is far outpaced by the exhilarating thrill of connecting with people through what you’ve created. The truth of it is the success that many creatives push for is gained only by embracing the prospect of failure and getting used to sharing our good enough stuff with people.

(Charlie Gilkey, Getting to Good Enough, Productive Flourishing)

Seeking feedback, reactions or critiques about your work can help you take a step further than you could go on your own. I’m not going to look at collaborative working like co-authoring or being in a band together here (that’s another article…) but at ways to get a collaborative boost on projects that you might have so far been working on wholly alone.

I’ll take these these in what’s (to me!) the easiest to hardest order for getting involved with each:

• Peer feedback from others engaged on similar projects – eg. other novelists, other cartoonists
• Audience responses from consumers of your work – eg. readers, listeners
• Guidance from a tutor, mentor or supervisor

Peer Feedback

Unless you’re engaged on such an amazingly creative project that nothing of the like has ever been done before, there are people who’re in the same field as you.  And you can share your work-in-progress with them. If you’re an aspiring novelist, you can get in on NaNoWriMo (it starts on November 1^st, so be quick!) – or you can join a writers’ circle, whether local or virtual.

If you’re a blogger, you can join forums or hang out with other bloggers on Twitter. (If you want to hang out with me, you can find me here.)

The reason I’ve put “peer feedback” top of the list is because it has a couple of big advantages:

• You can often get in touch with fellow writers/bloggers/artists/entrepreneurs even when you don’t yet have an audience. If you’re an as-yet-unpublished novelist, you’ve got a zilch percent chance of receiving fan mail – but you can foist chunks of that novel on fellow writers.
• Generally, your peers will understand the creative process. (Your audience may not.) Fellow writers won’t just be able to tell you that your dialogue is boring – they’ll be able to point out why and, often, they’ll be able to tell you how to fix it. Fellow designers won’t just say that your new logo looks a bit off, they’ll be able to suggest colour changes to fix it.

If you can, the best way to get this sort of feedback is to establish a smallish group that meets on a regular basis. I get together with four or five other creative writers each Wednesday morning, and we comment on one another’s work. This weekly meeting doesn’t just serve as a useful way to learn what’s working and what isn’t, it also:

• Brings us together! If you’re engaged on creative work, it’s easy to feel isolated – and that’s especially true if you’re trying to fit your passion around your day job, your family, or other commitments. Several people have mentioned how important it is to just be around other people who “get” writing: who understand why it’s important.
• Keeps us motivated. If you know that people will be asking how your writing (or drawing, composing, blogging, business) is going, it can be a powerful spur to actually getting on with it. When you know you’ll need to produce something that can be shared, you knuckle down and focus.

Of course, the point of peer feedback isn’t just to produce something for the group. It’s to get your creations to the stage where they can be shared with an audience…

Audience Response

I’d be willing to bet that even the most shy and retiring creative folk get a warm glow whenever their art or music or writing is enthusiastically received. One of the best moments in my week is receiving comments and emails from blog readers who’ve been helped, touched or encouraged by something I’ve written.

Ego-boosts aside, having an audience can also play a role in the creative process. There are a couple of ways in which a typical audience differs from your peers:

• Your average audience member is unlikely to have detailed knowledge of your industry or craft. If you play in a band, most of the people listening to you won’t be musicians.
• Your audience are the people you’re doing this for. Of course, there’s a joy in simply writing/drawing/making stuff for the sake of it … but in most cases, you’re trying to get an audience of some sort. Whether it’s readers for your blog, clients for your business, or headbangers for your thrash metal band, you’re creating something for people to read, buy, sing along to, marvel at, and so on.

Another bonus of having an audience is that in many cases, they’ll either be paying customers (eg. people who’ve bought your novel) or they might be thinking of becoming paying customers (eg. people who hear you busk then buy your CD.)

How do audiences feed into the creative process? In some art forms, the audience becomes part of the creation – certain types of theatre, or art installations, can manage this. In most cases, it’s the feedback from your audience which you receive that can help the creative process. Plus, when you have a receptive audience waiting, you’re more likely to stay motivated to keep creating.

With blogging, I sometimes ask my readers (as a group or individually by email) what they’d like me to write about. I invariably get some fantastic ideas that I’d never have thought of myself: several posts on Aliventures, and a few of my posts for Dumb Little Man, have been inspired by readers.

So how can you find out what your audience actually thinks about your particular project? It’s obviously easier with some mediums than others, but you could try:

• Giving customers a questionnaire
• Having a feedback form on your website that encourages comments
• Talking to or emailing individuals to ask what they’d like to see you do next – or do differently
• Running a poll or survey
• Making it as easy as possible for people to get in touch

The main drawback with audiences is that they might be able to tell you when they don’t like something – but they won’t necessarily be able to let you know how to fix it. They’re also probably not a good source of guidance on a directional level – where you’re going with your creative career. For that, you want to look for someone who’s already got there…

Tutor or Mentor Guidance

I’ve put this last because it’s the hardest sort of collaboration to find. Peers are generally plentiful, and audiences are often easy to get (though if your creation is something that’s costly to put “out there” – like a film script – then this might be much trickier). Finding a tutor or mentor either requires hitting lucky in a particular relationship – which may need time or patience – or paying money.

It can, however, be extremely rewarding and valuable. A good tutor or mentor can provide you with:

• Expert advice that saves you time and prevents you from making mistakes: this can essentially be a career shortcut
• An ability to see the big picture when it comes to your creative career or your business plans – your peers tend to be at the same stage as you, so they can’t generally help you plan the next few rungs of the ladder
• Objective guidance. Audiences respond purely on what they like; peers are often led by their own tastes even when they try to appreciate what you’re doing
• Inspiration. Being in close contact with someone who’s achieved something similar to what you want can be very encouraging when your motivation’s ebbing a bit.

In many creative fields, an easy (though not cheap) way to find a mentor is to take a course or study for a particular qualification. I’m taking my MA in creative writing not because I want an MA but, in part, for the chance to work closely with experienced tutors and to have their guidance on my fiction writing. I’ve taken seminars and short courses for business and fiction writing, and they’ve all been hugely valuable ways to generate and develop ideas, or to refine projects-in-progress.

A mentor doesn’t necessarily have to be someone working directly in your field. You can gain similar benefits (such as an objective perspective, and motivation) from working with a coach. If you do happen to be looking for a coach, Tim Brownson is your man for life, the universe and everything (and he’ll do you a free 30 minute session), and Charlie Gilkey is a project coach who completely gets creativity.

So, how do you find a mentor, tutor or coach if you’re broke? Good question. I’m not sure I have any easy answers! You could try what I do, and hang out with people who are a bit further along in your field than you are. You could send someone you admire an email, asking for some quick advice. You could look for folk who are experts in something you’d like to learn – but who could use something you can offer them: perhaps you’re an accomplished pianist, and they’re a great writer, and you can share your creative skills with one another.

Or, alternatively, you could try Penelope Trunk’s method of getting your next mentor by being slightly annoying…

In a creative utopia, we’d all have a supportive yet constructively critical peer group, a massive audience of raving fans who aren’t shy about saying what we could do even better, and several wise, encouraging mentors to lead us further than we could go alone. The real world doesn’t always match up to that – but if you’re willing to be brave, to put yourself and your projects out there, you’ll find that sharing your creations inevitably makes them better.

In the spirit of collaboration, a big thank you to all of you who’ve commented on Aliventures, who’ve emailed me, or who’ve linked to the blog or to individual posts. If you’ve got questions, thoughts, comments or rants about what you’d like to see on Aliventures, the comments are open! You’re also absolutely welcome to get in touch any time by emailing ali@aliventures.com, using my contact form, or connecting on Twitter or Facebook.