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Updated November 3, 2022Youโre reading an excerpt of Creative Doing, by Herbert Lui. 75 practical techniques to unlock creative potential in your work, hobby, or next career. Purchase now for instant, lifetime access to the book.
Typically, creative work takes place in what psychologist Fabra Robin Hogarth calls a โwicked learning environment.โ These are environments that involve many variables, which make correlations and causations difficult to form. Predictions are very difficult to clearly make.
In this case, you want to release your work in a kind, closed, learning environment. This prompt calls for you to show your work to 10 different people. Ask 10 of them the same questions, and youโll start to see patterns. If youโre uncertain of which questions to ask, try this ABCD framework from novelist Mary Robinette Kowal:*
Whatโs Awesome?
Whatโs Boring?
Whatโs Confusing?
What Didnโt you believe?
โWhat didnโt you believe?โ may be most helpful when responding to fiction, but disbelief is a form of distractionโa part of a story that I simply canโt believe. So if โWhat didnโt you believe?โ doesnโt seem like the right question for your work, you may ask, โWhat is distracting?โ In other words, youโre looking for elements of your work that take away from what youโre trying to express.
Listen to or read their answers carefully. Or, if you can see them in person, watch their nonverbal reactions. Do their faces look impassive, or concentrated? Are their shoulders pointing away from the work or towards? Sit back and donโt say anything. The silence is supposed to be there. Thereโs no need to judge exactly whatโs happening, but do take note of the reactions.
The only variable that changes should be the person. Hold as many other variables constant as possible. Time of day. Place. The piece of work should be the same (donโt make edits or revisions between feedback interviews). You may be surprised at what you learn, and how good a gauge even a small group of people can be. If youโre interested in learning more about how to get feedback, check out how product designers do it. There may be some methods that serve you.
On occasion, an intentionโa reason, or a purpose, or even just a hypothesisโcan be enough to get an idea started. When you share your intention, you give the other person or people a chance to make sense of it, which refines it and provides a space for it to grow.
It can help to be clearer with how youโre asking someone to support your intention. I remember once introducing two friends over coffee, and one was sharing a vision of setting up a dome installation during a film festival and making a request for the otherโs expertise with cameras. I left in awe of my friendโs informal presentation and vision.
Perhaps the request isnโt supporting an end result, but for support during the process. For example, โIโm planning on writing for 100 days, and Iโd love your support because Iโm trying to be an author and itโs going to be hard!โ You might also make a request more specifically for accountability, or for feedback, or just general moral support.