# get it on the page You need to get the ideas out of your head and onto the page, the canvas, the screen, the sketchbook. Put the ideas in some tangible form that can be looked at and analyzed and studied instead of floating nebulous in your mind. When ideas are in your head they are indistinct and change form as your thoughts shift. Putting the work on the page fixes the ideas into an unshifting static form which makes it easier to see problems and explore possibilities. > It doesn't matter if it's good right now, it just needs to exist. > > — Austin Kleon [[write to understand]]. The process of getting things on the page is how you figure things out. This is where you ask the questions and explore possible solutions. It is where you experiment with variations through [[divergent thinking]]. It is where you [[play with ideas]]. In college we learned to always be prepared to show our work to a client. I think the idea was to be conscious of keeping the work presentable because you never know when a client will stop in and ask to see what you are working on. You never want to be embarrassed to show off your work. Our instructors pressed us to always have quality art, even if it was just rough sketches. This was about being aware of page layout and the quality of the graphic presentation, as well as having legible writing and clear notes. I definitely agree with this sentiment. Over the years, I've also realized that there was a deeper meaning. The idea also means that you should be documenting your thoughts. The act of drawing is making the ideas visual. If your thoughts aren't on the page then nobody can see your thinking. Better drawing leads to better thoughts, or at least a better clarity of thought. Remember that [[a bad mime needs a narrator]]. The artifacts you are creating should clearly capture the ideas. If you need to explain to someone what they are looking at, then your aren't doing a good job documenting the thoughts. Conversely, sometime you just need to get the ideas out and it doesn't matter how messy or funky it all looks. The focus is on capturing the ideas, not taking the time to make it all pretty and functional. There's time enough for that when you start revising your thoughts. > Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something — anything — down on paper. A friend of mine says that the first draft is the down draft — you just get it down. The second draft is the up draft — you fix it up. You try to say what you have to say more accurately. And the third draft is the dental draft, where you check every tooth, to see if it's loose or cramped or decayed, or even, God help us, healthy. > > — [Anne Lamott](https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385480016) Getting things on the page helps to release the cognitive load. Don't have to keep all the thoughts and understandings in your head at the same time. Can get the ideas out so you can let them go and move on to new ideas. This allows more complexity in understanding as well as ability to [[take a break|take breaks]] and come back to the work at a later time. Given how flexible the mind is and how it can shift from moment to moment, it is good to remember that ideas that aren't captured are lost. You want to capture the inspiration when it comes. Keep a sketchbook handy. Have a digital notes app on your phone. Take pictures of things that capture your attention. Another advantage to capturing the ideas in a tangible form is that you never know when those dead-ends and unused ideas will be relevant. Revisiting old ideas with new eyes and understandings. Maybe those old ideas are appropriate for new unrelated projects. Or possibly just reviewing the old work will inspire new ideas. Be ready to capture them. Get those ideas on the page. > See enough and write it down, I tell myself. And then some morning, when the world seems drained of wonder, some day when I'm going through the motions of doing what I am supposed to do… On that bankrupt morning, I will simply open my notebook and there it will all be, a forgotten account with accumulated interest. Paid passage back to the world out there. It all comes back. Remember what it is to be me. > > ― Joan Didion --- tags: #creativity #process #start home: [[! creative process]]