You do it with this quote by Andy Warhol:
“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”
Be too busy creating, and getting it done, to care for the unwanted “feedback” that is the opinions of others who aren’t doing anything.
Don’t talk about what you’re “working” on, except with the members of your tribe.
A tribe is different from the writer’s group or artist’s group that meets at the cafe or on Zoom on Wednesday evenings.
A tribe, according to Seth Godin, in his book, Tribes:
“A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.”
The local writer or artist’s group is not a tribe.
Weekly meetings with no intention beyond sharing pages will cause membership to decline.
In your own experience, did you join a writer’s group? Did you attend for a long time? If you didn’t, why not? What caused you to lose interest in the group?
But a writer’s group can become a tribe.
If someone leads by placing Andy Warhol’s quote as the idea driving the group, the members of the group are energized to complete something to show it to an audience or print a limited set of copies and attend a comic con or book event.
The group gets behind a cause, and becomes a tribe.
Creativity surges in such an environment.
The habit of consistency is developed.
It starts with a decision.
Then there’s the possibility that the group won’t accept that idea.
You will be left on your own.
You’ll have to become a leader and share this idea in your writing.
That contains it’s own challenge that I point in this note.
We’re entering the first quarter of the year.
What would you like to see change in your creative output?
Impostor syndrome loses its grip the moment we shift from overthinking to doing. Thank you for sharing.
About Warhol's quote, I'd take it one step further. For many, art is life. Without it, we choke. You know whether your creation is good, bad, or adequate. (You feel it in your guts.) It's your choice how to proceed from there.
But I agree, don't stop to listen when it comes to following your muse. Just put on your industrial-grade ear muffs and get to it. Let your instincts/heart/gut lead. Then, share it, or not. For me, the creation process is the generative part.