{"id":492,"date":"2025-12-27T05:27:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T05:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/4north.net\/inspired\/?p=492"},"modified":"2025-12-27T05:31:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T05:31:05","slug":"creativity-is-not-a-constant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/4north.net\/inspired\/2025\/12\/27\/creativity-is-not-a-constant\/","title":{"rendered":"Creativity Is Not A Constant"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"No<\/a>
A photo from y 2018 “No Words” project – no titles, just photos. I no longer share every photo from my photo projects, but having goals, rules or target subjects may focus your inspriation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As I look back over the decades of creative endeavors, there’s one thing I really wish I had understood when I was just getting started on my creative path:\u00a0 Creativity is not a constant.\u00a0 There are ups and downs, twists and turns.\u00a0 Sometimes things go smoothly.\u00a0 Sometimes you take several steps back.\u00a0 The one thing you must understand is that creativity is chaotic.\u00a0 But it is always rewarding.<\/p>\n

Let’s discuss this a bit more literally.\u00a0 There are times when you don’t feel inspired or when you feel unmotivated.\u00a0 This is normal.\u00a0 Creativity is not something that you can turn on or off at any given moment.\u00a0 Sometimes, you need sparks.<\/p>\n

As we’re rounding out the year, you’re going to see creative friends talk about projects for the New Year.\u00a0 In the photography world, it’s not uncommon to hear about daily photo projects or weekly projects.\u00a0 In fact, I often have projects of my own, such as my\u00a0No Words<\/em> project that I continued for many years.\u00a0 The goal was to take a photo every day (or every week, some years) and share them on my social media accounts.\u00a0 Every year, I would come up with new rules.\u00a0 From the beginning, I held to a square format (1:1 ratio).\u00a0 In later years, I limited myself to black-and-white photos.\u00a0 This sustained me for many years.\u00a0 My No Words photos were a catalyst for better photos.\u00a0 It trained me to be on the lookout for great photo opportunities.\u00a0 I eventually moved on to mental lists.\u00a0 For example, I am constantly looking for new photos of shopping carts in odd places, or old stand-alone garages.\u00a0 These are just subjects, but they are also something to look for.<\/p>\n

The key to success is that your project has to have rules.\u00a0 You have to have a specific subject or a specific pace.\u00a0 Some creators I admire limit themselves by old technology – maybe using only film, or only cameras that are at least 20 years old.\u00a0 The limitations force them to think differently.\u00a0 But, if I’m being honest, it also demonstrates the concept of “the best camera is the one you have with you”.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I no longer share my daily projects constantly.\u00a0 I’m less enamoured with daily praise.\u00a0 I have since been focusing on editing, sharing only the photos that I truly feel are worthy of public consumption.\u00a0 But I still have projects to spark my creative process.<\/p>\n

The moral of the story is that while you cannot control your creativity, you can at least inspire it.\u00a0 Projects like a daily photo project can inspire you to develop a routine.\u00a0 Such a routine is beneficial for your creativity.\u00a0 And while you won’t land a great photo every day, it certainly increases your chances.\u00a0 So come up with a project to spark those creative juices.\u00a0 You don’t have to share it with the world, but it may benefit you in the long run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I look back over the decades of creative endeavors, there’s one thing I really wish I had understood when I was just getting started on my creative path:\u00a0 Creativity is not a constant.\u00a0 There are ups and downs, twists and turns.\u00a0 Sometimes things go smoothly.\u00a0 Sometimes you take several steps back.\u00a0 The one thing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":495,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148],"tags":[171,170,169],"class_list":{"0":"post-492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-learning","8":"tag-creativity","9":"tag-inspiration","10":"tag-projects"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/4north.net\/inspired\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/4north.net\/inspired\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/4north.net\/inspired\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4north.net\/inspired\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4north.net\/inspired\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/4north.net\/inspired\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":497,"href":"https:\/\/4north.net\/inspired\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492\/revisions\/497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4north.net\/inspired\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/4north.net\/inspired\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4north.net\/inspired\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4north.net\/inspired\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}