Mime Artist by Magdzia CC license: BY-NC-ND
I’m not a fan of Second Life. I know, I know, I’m in the minority. Maybe I’m too crotchety and old, maybe I don’t have the patience to figure stuff out. I do understand that it is as close as we can get to the metaverse in Snow Crash, and anyone can pretty much make anything, any game, anything happen.
But me, I like boundaries.
And I realize that most people excel creatively if they have set boundaries. Sure, you can disagree with me, and Second Life proves that many do very with with no boundaries but their imaginations. And yeah, you create more amazing things when you do stretch beyond some boundaries. But overall, I stand firm on how boundaries are a good thing.
Many people say they want to “take time off” to write, that they’d kill for just a month or two to focus on nothing but writing. But most people, given a gift such as that, find themselves floundering. Many can find they actually write more when they work on making time than when they have a vast, unscheduled expanse of time in front of them. People also work better on a defined budget than just “spend whatever you like.” (Don’t believe me? See what happened to the Duke Nukem video game.)
Boundaries do something that very few people recognize: they help you know when to stop. If you have unlimited time, then you can keep adding stuff, editing, tweaking. If you have unlimited budget, then you can keep making upgrades, getting the latest technology, traveling to research, flying in experts, and you never actually HAVE to get to the creation. But when you know the time will run out, when you know the money will run out, you do the work and you finish it. It may or may not be your best, but it’s done. And complete/flawed is reality, while incomplete/perfect is an illusion with no real worth.
When I was a kid, my father wouldn’t just encourage me to write, he would show me a picture in a book of fantasy art. Suddenly my vast, vague, “write a story” assignment turned into “write a fantasy story about red and white dragons fighting in a pit while humans look on.” It’s a fine tuning, it’s setting boundaries that help the focus of the work.
I am a fan of innovation, but you can’t think outside the box if there’s no box at all.
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6 Responses to Boundaries
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If it makes you feel any better, you’re hardly in the minority. My recollection is that Second Life has something on the order of 1.5 million unique monthly visitors, and only a small fraction of those account for most of the in-world hours. World of Warcraft, for example, has a much broader user base. (I hope mentioning WoW doesn’t make your fingers start to twitch.)
But point taken about boundaries.
You are spot on about creativity needing a space within which to thrive. Take away the container, and I’ve found a blob of expended energy with few outputs. Believe me, I’ve tried both ways, and much prefer the results iteration over iteration for each creative project.
I started using David Allen’s GTD methodology (not wholesale, but big parts of it) to govern my task/time management, and I don’t just use it for work – I use for everything: short-term work assignments, long-term work projects, ongoing work assignments, home and family, creative musical projects, “sidejob” projects, little website ideas that I collaborate on with other people… It’s a godsend, and I recommend it to anyone having a hard time finding time to work on creative projects and are instead “waiting to find a block of time” to achieve creative goals.
Writing, interactive media, music – it doesn’t matter – you make time for what matters to you. If you take an inventory and don’t like the results, find a way to put the appropriate containers around your time. Waiting for a window is essentially putting off your creative drive, which is NOT good.
I definitely fall into that category of people who took time off to be creative and who ended up floundering. Badly. Unfortunately…
I just found your blog and I’ve really enjoyed looking around you archives.
I completely agree that you need boundaries to be creative or at least I do. I’ve found that if I don’t put time limits on projects they just go on forever. I currently working on a project that I’ve put no limits on and it seems to be unending now. I really have to reign it in.
@Brian
I completely agree with you about finding a way to put appropriate containers around you time. I haven’t heard of David Allen’s GTD methodology. I’ll have to look into it.
This was refreshing to read! I am a 9-5 legal assistant in Silicon Valley and am in my third term of an MFA in Writing program in San Francisco. The classes are in the evening, allowing me to do both simultaneously (sometimes with more difficulty than others, but the possibility is still provided.)
Some of my classmates that are writing full-time think mine must be a terrible fate, but I’m finding it is actually allowing me to thrive. Not only does the organization and regularized nature of my workday lend itself well to academic success, but the limits of my schedule really make me choose carefully when it comes to how I spend my “free” time. My writing time is much more focused and driven than it was before.
I agree with the boundaries comments and being a long time member of Secondlife (a resident), there are limits to it. We are limited in “prims” and how to use them. A new person coming into the world has to take the time to learn every aspect of the game. From walking, flying to creating.