J-Lo, George Lucas and Finding Your Creative Counter Balance

Achieving Creative Success Often Requires Someone To Say 'No'

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What’s the best way to get creative results? Drugs? Drink? Unlimited budget? As every successful creative will tell you, the answer is restrictions. Whether it is a deadline (actually deadlines are always good!), a client’s super restrictive brief, or just that fact that your budget is less than the cost of a loaf of bread - all these limitations drive us to be more creative because they provide a framework for our ideas.

Our next most important driver of creative results is our creative counter balance. This is your business partner, producer or editor and is the person that will tell you when your ideas are good and when you need to think again. We all need this counter balance because they make us consider, re-consider and improve our creative projects.

Your Creative Counter Balance (let’s call them a CCB) can take different forms: I often do this work for people who have new show concepts they are developing, a good creative producer will help a theatre writer develop their play and an editor or agent will do the same for an author.

Back in the ‘90s I worked with experimental theatre company The People Show. The company creates original works and describes its creative process as “ an expression of whatever and whoever arrives at the rehearsal room on day one of the making process” This method of collaborative creativity means that the whole company becomes the CCB which is a wonderful and enriching way of working - and also very scary the first time you experience it!

Various work from The People Show

The singularity of vision and purpose that makes creatives successful is also what can trip us up which is why it is so important to find your own CCB.

I was reminded of the importance of having a strong Creative Counter Balance last week when I watched Jennifer Lopez’ latest extravaganza: This Is Me…Now: A Love Story on Amazon Video. There is a great review of the movie from Clara at Hmm..That’s Interesting here

Ms Lopez is a very successful artist and entrepreneur who has always been able to work herself into current trends without ever becoming cutting edge. Her first album, On The 6, was notable for mixing enough Spanish (which Lopez did not really speak) into its pop production to offer a veneer of Latin flavour - it also included a cover version of The Theme from Mahogany.