How to Be a Good Creator

The following is a letter I wrote to myself in August of 2023. I’d spent the last 18 months working on Laylian the Alien, and I had continual doubts about what I was doing, and why, and what to focus on next. I felt like I was caring for a non-sentient baby (the work), all while trying to care for a much bigger baby (me). As I wrote the letter, I thought back on all I had done so far and what I would tell my past self. In doing so, my present self found comfort, purpose, and clarity. I realized I could be both the giver and the recipient of my own advice.

I created a video version of the letter later that fall, all while musing about the potential for future letters in the same series. I decided to call them The Matchsticks Letters, referring to the creative process as a fire I was attempting to start.

-Brynn

How do I be a good creator?

Dear Soon-to-Be Creator,

To decide to create is a big decision. You are bringing something into the world that didn’t exist before. You may be wondering: “How do I be a good creator?”

To answer this, I think you need to understand why you’re creating to begin with.

There are many reasons why you may decide to create. Perhaps you crave the companionship and collaboration of working with other people. Perhaps you want the prestige and recognition of making something other people value. Maybe you are naturally talented or maybe you just haven’t found anything better to do. All of these reasons are valid.

But I’m not going to be talking about any of those reasons in this letter. The reason I will talk about is different. This reason to create is driven entirely by feeling. It feels, at heart, like an illogical decision. There is a wildness to it, an unpredictability. It feels exciting. You may not be able to express why you are drawn to creation, but you are. You love it inexplicably. You may not be certain you are the right person for the job and that’s okay. This feeling does not care what you think. This feeling does not care what anyone thinks. It is a spark that alights for itself.

To be a good creator, in this way, is to honor the spark you feel within yourself.

If you do not feel that spark but wish to, keep looking. It will likely appear in a place you did not expect at a time you were not expecting. All you can do is be ready to embark on your journey once it arrives.

When you first start out, you may be so enraptured with your creation you develop a kind of naïve optimism about the feasibility of making it happen. This is good. Your optimism wraps you in a protective layer against cynicism, which is absolutely deadly to newborn creations. The more experienced creators may shake their heads wearily at you or make passive aggressive comments on your naivety, but don’t pay them any mind.

Your optimism is beautiful and incredibly necessary.

It is the booster fuel that launches your rocket into space.

That booster will not stay on your rocket forever. This is part of the process. It is normal for rockets to shed unnecessary elements before continuing onward to their destination. When it comes time to shed your booster, you may be encountering problems with your creation. You may realize everything isn’t quite as feasible as you thought it was. You may look at your creation with mistrust and question its validity. You may even look at your past self with disdain and call yourself a fool. Resist this urge as much as you can. Your past self did what they needed to do. Their time is now done. It is your turn, older and slightly wiser creator.

You must protect your younger’s self’s original spark while allowing your creation to mature along with you.

As you work, external voices will comment on your creation, whether or not you chose to share it with them. Some may be supportive. Some may be discouraging. Others will ignore it entirely or treat it with indifference. It’s all okay. You may feel protective and hurt and you may feel overwhelmed and confused. If you’re lucky, you may feel seen. Just remember, external voices do not confirm or deny the validity of your creation.

Your creation is valid because it exists.

You made it. You do not need to have a logical reason to continue work on it. The fact that it is important to you is enough.

As you receive feedback from others, you will likely discover elements of your creation no longer work for you. This is normal. A variety of perspectives will help your creation’s growth, not hinder it. The more that people interact with your creation, the greater potential for it to mature. However, do not confuse this maturing with change. You should not change your creation. You should allow it to mature. Here is the difference: a matured creation builds on the foundation of its past self; a changed creation abandons its past and starts over. Changed creations become something they never were to begin with. Matured creations grow into what they always were. You may have the desire to change your creation for many reasons—external influences, internal doubts, realistic challenges. Resist this urge as much as you can. It will kill your creation. Correspondingly, you may have the desire to hold your creation back and keep it exactly the same as when you first made it. This too will kill your creation. Creations must become what they are meant to be or they will die.

The process of maturing can take a long time. Every creation is different and moves at its own pace. External realities and issues matter not to the developing creation. This is extremely frustrating for the creator. You may try to hurry it along, poking and prodding it, perhaps even disparaging it. This will not help your creation. It will only hinder it. Instead, you must find it within yourself to treat your creation with the kindness, patience, and tenacity that it deserves.

Your creation will be ready only when you have nothing new to add to it. It is complete when you have said all you have to say with it. You may never feel completely finished with it. That’s okay. You can tinker with it for the rest of time and still not feel finished. But when you begin to feel like you’re turning in circles and your work is no longer maturing, only changing, then perhaps it’s time to let it go.

It can be difficult letting go of your creation.

You have nurtured it for so long. But if it’s going to have a life beyond you, it needs to stand on its own two feet. It needs to exist beyond you.

Did you make what you set out to make? Did your creation morph into something completely unexpected? Whatever the answer, it’s okay.

It may feel counterintuitive, but you do not control your creation. Your creation does not belong to you. It belongs to itself. But it came from you, and thus, remains your love, your creation. You must love it while allowing it to belong to itself. This is very difficult to do.

Truly, at your heart, you may believe you made your creation for others. You may even believe you made your creation for the sake of itself. But the reality is you did neither one of those things. You made your creation for yourself. The act of creation is a means of connecting with the self. And that makes it the most important thing you can ever do.

I believe you have it in you to be a very good creator. I wish you and your creation all the best.

Love,

A Fellow Creator