CSP 016 - 30 Days of Creativity - FREE guide
A failed creative soul project, that turned out well in the end
Hey Creative Souls,
I hope you are safe and well.
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30 Days of Creativity
In this edition of CSP, I am sharing a creative soul project that initially failed. It turned out alright in the end, but we’ll get to that.
To share the guide I’m also experimenting a little with the wonderful tool, Fold. You may recall my travel guide to Budapest was also hosted using Fold. Cool little tool.
Experiments are at the heart of Creativity, and like all experiments, using Fold may not work, but for now, it’s looking pretty darn good.
Let's see how it goes.
You can view the Creativity guide on Fold here.
The failed experiment
The very first edition of this mini guide to creativity was an experiment and it failed. I was trying to be creative by creating a pop-up newsletter on LinkedIn.
Except I failed. Here’s why.
The LinkedIn platform proved a monumentally bad choice to distribute the newsletter. The platform simply refused to post somedays. Other days it would post but I couldn’t share it to my subscribers.
It would lose drafts. Images wouldn’t show properly. Some people couldn’t turn notifications off (yet some could!).
It was a technical disaster.
An early failure to my creative endeavor. So, it failed after just 6 days. Blocked. Unable to post. Fail.
Creativity is learning
But with all creative attempts there is a chance to learn. Creativity is the act of expressing yourself and bringing something to life - and we have little control over how people will respond, whether our project will even work and whether we can even create what we see in our mind.
As such, our creative pursuits are a path to learning. What worked, what didn’t, how can I improve, what could I do differently next time.
With this particular Creative Soul Project, I had a chance to change direction. A chance to pivot. A chance to try something new.
Instead of a pop-up newsletter on LinkedIn, it’s now a FOLD.
Where did this idea come from? (Excerpt from the Fold Guide)
This main idea for this guide struck me whilst on my commuter train to London. Whilst waiting for the train, two things had primed my brain.
The first was a boring marketing email from LinkedIn promoting their new newsletter feature. I checked out some newsletters and was overwhelmed with boredom. Not for me, thank you LinkedIn.
Unknowingly, I'd also primed my mind by rereading Craig Mod's insightful article on pop-up newsletters.
This was the second "priming" moment.
Craig's email had struck me deep - I liked the idea of a pop up newsletter. It pops up, it goes away.
This sparked an idea: a pop-up newsletter could be a less tedious, low-commitment approach to using LinkedIn's newsletter feature.
I left the idea alone and got into movement - boarding the train and fighting for a seat.
Then the idea resurfaced as I sat facing a fellow commuter who had a raging cold, and probably shouldn't have been on the train with everyone.
The concept of a non-boring, pop-up newsletter on LinkedIn took shape on the train. But what about?
Then I realised I'd been primed to come up with creative ideas whilst waiting for the train - and realised that a pop-up newsletter, on the LinkedIn newsletter platform, about creativity, could be interesting.
I took out my trusty little red notebook (which I carry with me for capturing and writing) and rapidly generated 37 ideas, later refining them down.
The core idea was explored and expanded on paper, on the train, whilst being infected with a cold by other passengers.
The next day, I created a document in Google Docs, and started writing.
Over two weeks of lunch breaks, I focused on writing—the creative act of bringing these chapters and ideas to life.
The initial newsletter launch on January 1st failed on January 6th, necessitating a rethink.
This led to the decision to transform it into another medium - you are now reading a variant of the final product, which was published in early February on another of my sites.
The entire process, from initial idea to completion, spanned 8 weeks, with a Christmas break in between.
14,000+ words.
The creative process is one that intrigues me.
An idea forms (often from inputs we may not always be aware of) and with the right fuel, you can turn it into something tangible, something that didn’t exist before - this is creativity.
Of course, it’s an expression of self that may fail.
But we can learn and keep going, aiming to improve with each new attempt or project. And that’s why the creative process intrigues me so much. Hence, this newsletter exists - to share the joy of creativity.
You can find the Fold here.
Thanks for reading this article. If you enjoyed this edition of CSP, feel free to share it with others.
Until next time, where I’ll be sharing more ideas about creativity, learning and communication.
Cheers
Rob..
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