Have you ever attempted archery? Between the odd summer camp and far more sporty friends than myself I have held many a bow although I’m still a quite inept archer. Despite how bad I am at archery I still have picked up a bit of knowledge from my friends who are handier and two of the most important things in archery are: proper stance and a target. It’s common sense really; if you don’t hold a bow properly it doesn’t matter how good that bow is, you’re never going to shoot it well. Equally if you’re not aiming at a target it doesn’t matter how good you can shoot, what you will hit is completely random. 

When we break it down into an analogy about archery these things make perfect sense, but when we talk about creativity or photography we tend to look for advice on the best equipment or how to grow an audience fast…if you haven’t learned what you want to shoot (target) or how to shoot (stance) then the best equipment in the world doesn’t matter. If you manage to grow an audience fast but you don’t know what you want to share with them, how will you maintain your growth?

People hate to bring structure to creativity. We think that if we put guidelines on our creativity that we will limit it, but creativity without a target or proper stance is like shooting wildly in all directions, all the time—you might occasionally hit a target by pure chance but you can’t maintain momentum and you can’t repeat that success consistently. You’ll burn yourself out and be left with a field of random arrows wondering why some were successful and some weren’t. When we give our creativity structure and direction with purpose we learn how to encourage sustainable, consistent creativity that won’t wear out and will be a resource for us to return to again and again.

I don’t want you to put your creativity in a box or limit it; this isn’t even about choosing one focus like “you must choose photography or painting!” Rather, this is about finding the purpose behind why you are driven to create and learning what environments and tools help you create work you are consistently proud of and energized by. When we find our purpose it gives us a target—it helps us define what type of work we want to create. When we have a target we can then focus more on our stance and the tools we need to hit that target consistently—no matter what medium we are working in or what we are creating. 

Your purpose in creating can be anything. In my early days of blogging my purpose was very much having an online diary; those early posts during my college years were very stream-of-consciousness and allowed me to put to pen many of thoughts and feelings I wasn’t comfortable expressing aloud. Over the years the purpose of my blog shifted and changed to where it is today; I often sum up today’s purpose as “quiet in the wild” or providing a window into the wild for others. Finding and defining the purpose behind why you feel driven to create isn’t a cage that will restrict your creativity, it’s a resource that will help inspire you endlessly.

All the best,
Rebecca