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Scribbling Outside the Lines:

7 Reasons Why it's Good to Make a Mess

By Dan Goodwin

When’s the last time you really made a mess?

Now I don’t mean spilling a cup of coffee in your lap, or knocking over a pot of paint while decorating. We’re talking here about making a mess in your creative work, discarding and flowing over the usual confines and boundaries you set for yourself.

Reaching out, cutting loose, scribbling in the margin, colouring outside the lines, creating freely and without inhibition or restriction, just for the joy and pleasure of creating.

If you’re like most of us, the last time you made a mess was probably quite some time ago. Maybe you don’t even remember when.

We so easily get into a set pattern of creating — a pattern that yes can often help us create very prolifically — that we forget to try anything new.

A large part of being creative is about innovating and reinventing.

We can find a winning formula for a novel or a song, then turn out more of the same time and time again, each one a slightly different variation on a trusted and safe template.

And by doing this of course we can be prolific and very creative in terms of our volume of output, and at the same time do a great impression of a photocopier.

But how much are we challenging ourselves with each new work?

How creative are we really being?

Sometimes maybe we don’t even get to that stage of producing a high volume of very similar work.

Maybe our fear of making a mess means we sit surrounded by wonderful new materials, paints, film, canvases and other creative equipment, terrified of starting something new in case we make a mess and “waste” those shiny new materials?

Whatever the background story to why you don’t make a mess more often is, cutting loose and just creating is actually very healthy for our creativity.

Here are 7 compelling reasons why:

1. It takes you into new territories. You'll discover things about your creativity you never would have otherwise. Maybe after years of writing novels, you find through experimentation you actually love writing short poems.
   
   
2. It reduces perfectionism. Trying to make everything you create absolutely perfect is one of the most dangerous creativity killers. Making a mess and just practicing NOT being perfect can be very liberating and help increase your creativity overall.
   
   
3. It's good for your health. Being more carefree and not stressing out about every tiny detail of every creative project is so much better for you! Imagine if you had no emotional attachment to the outcome of your next creative project. What would that be like?
   
   
4. It allows you to practice giving yourself permission. Only you can ultimately give yourself permission to do anything, including creating. And it's often this fear, this resistance, that holds us back after everything else is in place and everyone else has said "Yes! Go for it! Create what you love to create!"
   
   
5. It's liberating. If we create in the same boundaries all the time, it becomes mundane and too routine. It's good to break free from the creative straightjacket we bind ourselves in and run in the long grass, rather than sitting sedately on a perfectly manicured lawn.
   
   
6. It connects you to something deeper. Sometimes creating the best we can is about listening to, feeling, and channelling something deeper, higher, wider and bigger than ourselves. Unless we're prepared to get messy and venture into those areas, we're not going to find that intensity and reward that only truly deep creating can bring.
   
   
7. It's brilliant fun! Being a bit wild and free with your creativity — whether it's writing, painting, signing or anything else — allows you to have fun, forget about the outcome or "end product" and just ENJOY the creative process, something we often don't realise we've actually forgotten how to do.

Which of these reasons encourage you most to be more wild and messy with YOUR creativity?

Pick a new project today, however small, and just throw yourself into creating as messily as you can. You could amaze yourself at the effect it has on your creativity.

:: Share Your Experience ::

How messy do you get with your creative projects? What are some of the things that hold you back?

Share your experiences and comments about this article and see what others are saying at Dan's blog: A Leap Across A Chasm. •

© Copyright 2007 Dan Goodwin

About the Author | More by Dan Goodwin
Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin is the author of “Create Create!”, a FREE twice monthly ezine for people who want simple and powerful articles, tips and exercises to help them unleash their creative talents. Sign up right now and get your FREE “Explode Your Creativity!” Action Workbook, at www.CoachCreative.com.

04/08/07