ideas

How creative people react to other people’s great ideas

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the emotional stages of witnessing a great idea

I went to see Inside Out, the latest Pixar film, this weekend and it blew my mind.

This isn’t a film review – there are plenty of those out there already – but suffice it to say that it’s excellent. It’s an incredibly clever idea, perfectly executed (for anyone who isn’t aware of it, it’s an animation about an 11 year old girl who moves to San Francisco with her parents and how her emotions – Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness – help her deal with her new life. It’s just brilliant). They had me at the mention of Amy Poehler and Mindy Kaling. I mean, you just know it’s going to be good if they’re involved.

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the concept of a great idea and how we creative folk react in the face of one; specifically when it belongs to somebody else.

There are a series of feelings involved – curiosity, fascination, interest, inspiration – but also, if we’re honest, a touch of envy, a dose of self-doubt and, if we’re not careful, an unhealthy chunk of OH GOD I’M JUST USELESS, NONE OF MY IDEAS ARE EVEN A TEENY TINY BIT AS GOOD AS THIS, I MAY AS WELL JUST QUIT AND LIVE IN A HOLE.

Now firstly, this is symptomatic of being a creative type – we do tend to be a little on the dramatic and emotional side, it’s just part of the deal. To anybody who lives with a creative person, the best way to deal with a tantrum or momentary meltdown about the pointlessness of existence or YET ANOTHER discussion about why they’re still not Banksy/J. K. Rowling/Lena Dunham/Kevin Spacey/Oprah Winfrey (delete as appropriate according to field of interest), is by giving them a biscuit, putting them in the bath and reminding them gently that they just need to pull themselves together and KEEP GOING. Seriously, is there anything that a soak and a snack can’t fix?

Because another element of this creative sensibility is that we tend to be quite hard on ourselves – again, much like any ambitious folk – beating ourselves up because we are making progress but not at the lightning rate that we’d like, and because sometimes we have to sleep and eat meals and brush our hair and whatever which means we can’t be working all of the time. When are we going get that eighth day in the week that we’ve been promised for so long?

The world we live in can make us feel like we’re just not getting there fast enough. The internet slaps us about the face every second with what everybody else has been doing and in most ways it’s great – we get to read all of the things, marvel at the incredible ideas people have, and ponder where they all came from – and I personally wouldn’t have it any other way. But the level of information and self-promotion we see every moment can play on our anxieties too, so we need to manage how we interact with what we’re seeing and make sure our minds remain focused on being inspired rather than threatened.

Because if we deal with what we’re seeing in the right way, it can be so good for us. There’s nothing like seeing somebody doing something fantastic to drive you on to do something fantastic too. Every good thing you see has happened because somebody had the guts to do it, the energy to put in all the hard work, and the balls to call the right person and get them to say yes. And there’s no reason why you can’t do the same thing.

Every moment you spend having a meltdown you could be using to pen your own piece of genius. I mean, sure, a tantrum might earn you a biscuit, but a little focus and perspective could earn you, like, an Oscar or something. And that victory will taste better than any snack ever could.

WELCOME TO MY NEW HOME!

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Hello and welcome to my brand new online abode.

It’s taken a little while – it turns out building a website, transferring 129 existing blog posts, editing them, adding photographs, generally dicking about and trying to get the internet to do what I say is quite hard work – but Nothing good rhymes with Charlotte has now officially moved over to WordPress (I used to use blogspot) and onto it’s very own URL – check me out, I’ve got my own dotcom! I think this internet thing could really catch on.

I have been wanting to do this ever since I went to the marvellous Blogcademy last year (which P.S I would strongly recommend to anybody interested in blogging, it is EXCELLENT) but it’s taken me a while to find the time and, to be honest, the guts.

I ran a little survey a couple of months ago, asking my faithful readers what they like about this blog, why, and what more they’d like to see. And I learnt two vital lessons:

1. First and foremost, people are in it for your voice: People decide whether they like you because of what you say and, crucially, the way you say it. I always thought that if I wasn’t writing about relationships and saying my usual sarcastic things about my husband’s inability to PICK UP HIS SH*T then I’d lose all my readers but it turns out that’s not the case. Sure, you want to hear a bit of that (and thank goodness for that – sarcasm is like air to me, without a steady daily dose of it, I fear I may just collapse), but new ideas are welcome too. And that’s very exciting. I will therefore, in addition to my normal observational bits on life and love and whatnot, also be sharing some travel stories, writing up some very amusing dating tales I’ve been told (not mine, I hasten to add. Not dating other people is, like, the first rule of marriage), and generally feeling free to dabble in a wider variety of topics and opinions. I may need to start getting up earlier to fit it all in.

2. People don’t just read your stuff because they like you: I did know this, of course, but it’s always good to be reminded. People are busy, so if they’re going to read a thing, it’s because they enjoy that thing, not just because it happens to have been written by somebody they know/chatted rubbish with once in a bar. It’s important that you don’t just write things because you think your friends will like them – write them because they’re what you want to say. Some people will like one particular post, others will like something different. As long as it’s all authentically you, you can’t go too far wrong.

This was a very useful process all round, and nowhere near as scary as I expected.

I am very excited for the next chapter in Nothing good’s life and hope very much that you will come along with me. If you’re new here, take a little look around, get a feel for the place and feel free to leave me a comment and let me know what you think. You can find out more about me and this blog right here.

And if you’re an old timer, well versed in the NGRWC vibe, THANKS SO MUCH for sticking around. Let me know what you think of the new look and I look forward to sharing more words with you in the days, weeks and months to come.

Strap in, friends. This is going to be FUN.

 

P.S – AN EXTRA BIG THANK YOU

I owe a huge THANK YOU to the marvellously talented Alasdair Wallace for creating my new blog logo, to the equally excellent Charlotte Mary Rose who took my profile pic, to several other dear friends who have been on hand to give me much needed website building-related advice, and, of course, to my husband, Leon, for allowing our recent trip to New York to double up as an unofficial blog photo shoot and for generally putting up with numerous html inspired tantrums. CHEERS GUYS, YOU’RE  THE BEST. x

What keeps you awake at night?

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Let me tell you a secret.

Most of the time when I sit down to write this blog, I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to write about until I start typing.

The basis of an idea or two will be there in the back of my brain, somewhere between the part which knows whether we’ve got any crisps in the house and the section dedicated to begging me to PLEASE just get up earlier, but it won’t be fully formed; no more than a single word scribbled on the back of a receipt followed by a question mark.

And today is just the same as any other. We sat next to some people who were clearly on a first date a couple of nights ago in a restaurant which I thought I could write about, the differences between our approaches to each other being so hilariously different. But I don’t really feel like dissecting that today, perhaps another time. We also spent this weekend in the company of many excellent friends and it’s filled me up with happiness and joy at all the great people that I know, but also intrigued me about how energy sapping the idea of lots of socialising can sometimes feel after a busy week, and how you forget that the reality is entirely energising – like a good gym class but without the sweating – but that’s for another day. To be honest, I’m pretty knackered.

No, the thought that is holding on most strongly in my head today is the idea of just not really having a firm idea. That in itself is worth talking about.

Sometimes I find that I reach a bit of a wall. Like that feeling when you’re standing in the supermarket feeling anything but hungry, trying to decide what to buy for dinner. You just wander around aimlessly, hoping that a meal will walk into your basket and solve all your problems. And that it will involve cheese. I mean, obviously you know that you want cheese.

It causes you to stop – if (hopefully) just for a short time – and wonder what will happen next to get you back on track. Perhaps all will become clear once you’ve had a little sleep, or a good conversation will get you the clarity that you need, or maybe just sitting down and making a good list will be the answer to all your problems. I do like a good list.

Take this blog, for example. Where is it going? When am I finally going to give it the makeover it needs? And when I do, what else will come with it? What’s my big plan here? And then there’s other things – I have two books in my head (yes it does hurt and yes you are funny!) and bits of them have made their way onto paper, but there’s so much more to do. What’s going on with them? Which one do I want to focus on? Are they definitely good ideas? How does anybody ever know the answer to that question?

Sometimes I know all of the answers to these questions and sometimes I have absolutely no idea whatsoever – it’s like you’re asking me for the very first time. And I’m sure it happens to everybody. People on the internet can appear so polished, so sorted. But that can’t always be the case; everybody must hit a wall or two sometimes. I’m pretty sure it’s not just a running thing.

I think that what helps get your focus back in these situations is knowing at your core that you want to do the thing – whatever it might be – even if you’re not precisely sure how you’re going to go about it. When I wake up in the middle of the night, once I’m done worrying about whether everybody I know and love is safe and well, and wondering whether I need the toilet or if I’ve remembered to lock the front door, it’s writing that I think about. What I’m going to do next, whether that idea about first dates is good (or just evidence that I’m jealous of people who are younger than me…) and just how I can find more time to get more and more words into the right order. 

And that is more than enough to keep me going.