1 SEPTEMBER 2022
I recently listened to one of my favourite authors, Toddy Henry of Accidental Creative, talk about the importance of “Unnecessary Creating” in a podcast.
He describes it as an act of creating something for the sake of creating. That what you produce doesn’t have to meet a deadline or expectation. It just has to meet one criteria: That you had fun while doing it.
In an article for 99U, Henry lays out the qualities of unnecessary creation:
- Set your own agenda.
- Give yourself permission to try new things and develop new skills.
- Take as much or as little time as you need to get it right.
- Stretch yourself, explore fringe ideas that intimidate you, and make things that no one but you will ever see.
- If you fail, it’s no big deal.
Too often, we creatives don’t spend enough time creating “unnecessary things”. In our era where maximising your productivity and efficiency is everything, spending time creating something that doesn’t meet a goal seems like a waste of time.
However, just engaging in on-demand creativity, the creativity we utilise at our jobs or to meet expectations, can be draining if that’s all the creating we do.
It got me thinking how little unnecessary creating I’ve been doing the last few years.
In many ways, my blog is a way to “let off steam”. However, driven and trained as I was in the principles of content marketing, every essay I write on the blog are research-heavy chonkers, SEO-optimised to hit the first page of Google. I find myself obsessing about analytics to.
Sometimes, just sometimes, I just want to disconnect my blog from Google Analytics and write something that Google doesn’t approve of. That won’t bring me traffic. That is using a keyword no one would ever type into a Google search bar. (I’ve written about this dissatisfaction numerous times — I hate what blogging has become.)
And I find myself drawn to read more journal-like blogs like The Happy Hermit, Jamie Todd Rubin, and the Friday’s Frugal Five series by Angela of Tread Lightly, Retire Early. Marketers would label their content “low on value” — but to me, it’s full of value. It’s a peek into their thoughts, ideas and world view. Which is better than any SEO optmised listicle.
Here’s how unnecessary creating could look like for me:
- Not research keywords before writing an essay. Just writing about stuff I want to write about.
- Writing fiction that doesn’t go anywhere or lead to money
- Just doodling
- Writing fan fiction!
- Gardening
How do you think it’ll look for you?
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Elizabeth Tai 