Have you ever wondered why one creative project catches fire and another doesn’t? Why some feel like work and others like play?

Me, too. All the time.

Lately, my mind’s been going back to a butterfly garden my sons and I built for my wife during covid. It involved loads of hard work and a ridiculous amount of failure.

How much failure, you ask? Well, for our first iteration, we focused on flowers that attracted butterflies. The strategy brought in a lot of butterflies, but the first crop of caterpillars ate the plants down to the nub.

For the second garden, we added plants that were caterpillar food. That one was mostly killed off by a freeze.

The third garden… well, you get the idea.

The crazy thing is that we kept at it. For each new garden, we cleared the old, picked out new plants, arranged them, weeded them, and forged ahead. And during all of this work, we had fun.

Why?

What separated that project from any of the others we’d tried to launch? The flower bed out back never went anywhere. Our rose garden still looks more like a tribute to thorns than beauty. What was it about the butterfly garden that made it fun?

Here’s how it breaks down for me.

Audience

First of all, we weren’t doing it for us. This is important. There’s a huge difference between doing something for yourself and doing something for someone else. Over the years, I’ve learned that this is true for all my creative endeavors.

Every time I’ve tried to write for myself – whether it’s a game, a piece of software, or a story – I’ve run out of gas before finishing it. I create for an audience. I might not know who that audience is, but I write for them.

An important nuance to this is that I don’t write for the money. I mean… I want the money. I just don’t write for it. Even when I’m writing for magazines or newspapers, my motivation is the audience.

The Hook

Let’s face it: butterflies are cool. Creating a garden for butterflies? Come on. That’s about as awesome as it gets. If you’re in the middle of a writing project and it’s starting to feel like a slog, re-evaluate the hook. Are you still excited about it? What could you change to make it exciting? Writing a novel, in particular, is a time-consuming project. Spend the time to stay tuned into what makes it cool.

Community

This is the toughest one for me to admit. I tend towards being alone. As my wife will attest, I can quite easily retreat into writing for days at a time. Tuning out the rest of the world is what you might call one of my core competencies. The idea of a community isn’t super consistent with that. Nevertheless, for me, it’s energizing.

Would I have finished the butterfly garden on my own? Probably, but one glance at how weedy it’s become since my kids moved out speaks volumes about what having a community means to my motivation.

How about you? Do you have a community you work with? Maybe a critique group? What about a few friends you can bounce ideas off of? Does anyone ask you how your work is progressing? Do they understand it?

Feedback

Perhaps the coolest thing about gardening is the feedback. When I’m writing, I can go for months on end without any idea if I’m building something good. In the garden, I see progress (or damage) usually within the week.

If you’re a writer, a critique group is the easiest way to get feedback. Unfortunately, finding (or forming) a critique group isn’t always possible. If you don’t have one, consider drafting some friends or family members. Groom them into understanding the feedback you need.

One odd way that I get feedback is by reading my work aloud. I find it’s a great way to both find problems and to get excited about what I’ve written. Just be sure to close the door. It’s weird when your spouse walks in on you.

Putting it all together

Putting it all together, we get Audience + Hook + Community + Feedback = Motivation.

That’s my equation. When I have those pieces in place, I’ll happily work for as long as it takes to bring something new into the world.

How about you? What is it that keeps your creating fun?

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