Let authors write bad novels. Why the freedom to play is crucial to the creative process.

Considerations for Fiction Writers – A Blog Series

Creatives need to play in order to do their best work, and in order to play, they need to feel safe. Give creatives permission to fail, as well as the space to grow, and superior work will emerge.

My seven-year-old has a loud voice and an awesome sense of humor. When I say there’s pizza, she roars, “YEESSS! PIZZZAA!!” She’s good at impressions and she occasionally ends her sentences with yo.

I was driving with my daughter in the car and the song “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone started playing on the radio (1.) (2.). I love the sound, but I find the lyrics a bit vague and passive. The speaker expresses fear that god is going to take their partner away, but in what way? Are they afraid their partner is going to leave them? Because if the speaker is afraid their partner is going to leave, there are whole a lot of things they can do to prevent it. For example, the couple can communicate their feelings and make sure everyone is getting their needs met. I might be missing a bit of context, but it’s fun to criticize creative works.

I parked and the refrain of “Beautiful Things” was fresh in my mind (2.). I was unbuckling and my daughter performs an impression of a crying-man, singing. “Pot! Don’t! Take! This beautiful poo that I’ve got!”

It was so funny, I giggled until I had tears.

The reason why I permit my daughter to make potty jokes is because when she was learning to potty, she was terrified of the toilet. So I made it funny so she’d see there’s no reason to be scared. I permitted the potty humor to continue because I wanted her to feel comfortable coming to me if she has any potty related issues. Humor takes the fear out of a topic and makes an awkward subject easier to talk about. And bonus points, encouraging creativity has helped my daughter grow in confidence.

My daughter might one day use her comedy in a career, in forming relationships, in parenting, or in coping with life. If she continues developing her creativity, it will be a valuable asset. But her comedic development could’ve been killed at an early age, if I punished her for making potty jokes, if I didn’t laugh at her jokes, or if she didn’t consider me a safe person.

Why does it matter? Because creativity is important. We live in a society where people don’t value creative skills. At the same time, everyone takes creative products completely for granted. Individuals who choose creative careers are treated like they’ve decided to sit on the beach all day. Creative products are everywhere we look in our day to day lives, yet there’s little understanding of the years of professional growth behind each graphic novel, screenplay, YouTube video, or poster. Not to mention, creatives are notoriously underpaid for their work.

But the reality is, we need creativity if we want to be able to imagine better ways of living on this planet. Creativity can help people cope with the difficult times. And most importantly, creativity can make life fun and we need fun because we’re humans, not machines.

I believe the ideal creative process must include play and it works best in an environment that fosters play. Play must include fun, experimentation, the freedom to take risks, and permission to fail over and over. If a creative person is submerged in an environment of fear, they won’t take risks and the work will resemble its past predecessors. If they treat a creative project like it’s solely work, they won’t have the drive to take it to another level and consumers will perceive its lack of genuine emotion. I’m not saying the creative process doesn’t involve work. Creative projects involve far more work than people realize. Work is important, but fun is equally important. But I wonder if it’s too dangerous to play in our modern world.

Two types of criticism can crush creativity dead. One is criticism that makes an individual feel as though they’re inherently bad at a particular skill. Another is criticism that makes an individual feel as though they’re morally bad. I could’ve told my daughter that she’s not funny and she would’ve believed me. If I had told her she was a bad kid for using the word poo, she’d be afraid that there are other words that could make her ‘bad’. Fear would make her reluctant to experiment with humor and it would stifle her comedic development.

Let’s pause to consider how creative development works. The way an artist develops their skills is they draw a picture, look for a way to make it better, then try again. It’s a cycle that helps artists slowly improve their work over time. It can take a decade of growth before they’re considered a professional. Let’s say a teen is beginning this process and they bring their artwork to school. A teacher offers helpful criticism and instruction to help the teen improve. The teen tries again and produces slightly better work.

Let’s be real for a second here, folks. Developing any creative skill requires this mundane process. Producing imperfect work is simply part of growing as a creative. No one blasts out of the womb able to paint a portrait! In fact, humans start off pretty terrible at stuff, drawing scribbles with crayons and scrawling our first letters. But psychologically, we need encouragement to maintain motivation. It’s simply how our brain works. If we’re persuaded we suck, we won’t see the point in trying and we’ll give up.

Encouragement can look like a friend recognizing the improvements we’re making and celebrating those small steps with us. Encouragement is not taking the work of a beginner and comparing it to a professional. It’s not a bombardment of negativity. Creatives need to know where they’ve done well, so they can keep it up. Not to mention a lot of us creatives don’t need our work to be torn apart because we’re already our worst critics. Often we need help stepping back and being kind to ourselves.

Let’s say my imaginary teen posts a painting online. Consumers wouldn’t know how young the artist is, or how little experience they have. Plus, consumers are invisible, so they can get away with being as cruel as they want to be. The teen could be bombarded with so much negativity it destroys their self-confidence. What if the teen makes a moral error? Let’s say the painting has indigenous themes and the teen isn’t indigenous. The teen artist could also be bombarded with moral outrage for cultural appropriation.

The teen may incorrectly learn that they’re innately bad at art and internalize the idea that they’re a terrible person. This is extremely destructive to the creative! If the teen artist doesn’t give up, they’ll be living in fear of failure and fear of accidentally doing something else ‘wrong’. This type of negative bombardment is psychologically harmful. It can adversely affect the artist’s concept of themselves and make them feel unsafe in the world. So in such a situation, the consequences of failing are too extreme.

I believe moral errors should be approached the same way as when a teacher offers helpful criticism about colour choices. A teacher would simply explain why the painting might bother an indigenous person. In the future, the teen could spend more time considering their themes. But there should never be an implication of the creative’s innate moral worth.

One time in university, I wrote a short story about a young woman with a violent father. Her boyfriend was also emotionally abusive. My intention was to experiment with crafting a character who escapes violence, and when we workshopped it, the men in my class were insulted. One man said, “Do you think all men are like this? You’re making it like all men are cruel.”

I never intended to suggest that all men are cruel, but after it was pointed out, I saw how people might think that. It was an easy fix. I simply needed to add one or two nice guys to the story and problem solved. I only required the issue to be addressed, and I could fix it and move on. But if I had posted it online, consumers could’ve approached it like I was a psycho man-hating bitch. I could’ve been bombarded with personal attacks. It would’ve harmed my self-confidence and my moral self-esteem. And most devastatingly, I would’ve seen the world as an unsafe place to play.

Most creative products are public. Creativity is everywhere we look: on our books, on our favorite streaming sites, on our T-shirts, on our apps. Toss in the fact we live in world where everyone and their hamster can publicly disparage such products. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with examining novels, paintings, TV shows or any other media. For instance, I had fun analyzing Benson Boone’s song, “Beautiful Things”. But it’s the quantity of reactions coupled with the negative assumptions consumers make about the creative that does the most damage. A critique should never be an assessment of the person, only the work itself.

Fear can halt, or take the life out of a person’s creative work. Some people claim that when creatives make an effort to including diverse characters, the work itself suffers. But it’s not the diverse cast that’s causing the work to suffer. It’s the cultural environment. Creatives often feel they must be perfect in every way, so they’re afraid to take risks. They’re afraid to experiment and they don’t feel safe enough to have fun. I believe because creatives cannot play, they’re producing disappointing media.

I know it’s taken forever for me to get to my point, but here it is: Let authors write bad novels! Let artists paint bad paintings! Let screenwriters write bad shows! Let creatives make moral errors! Superior work will emerge from an environment where it’s safe to do these things, where people are allowed to play, have fun, experiment, fail, and learn.

Be kind to yourselves and recognize that you deserve the space to grow. Ignore critics who attack you as a person, and, folks, have fun creating!

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Should writers preach through fiction? Be cautious when crafting cults, or when preaching on the sly.

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Should I make my characters pretty? A reflection on lookism and crafting beautiful characters.