In my last journal I railed against those who continually complain about the lack of inspiration, creative blocks and time/resources to pursue their art. I'll talk specifically about photography, because that's my field and I understand it better than other art media, but much of what I say can be applied just as well to other forms of art.

First and foremost, being a creative is a discipline. The greatest creatives in history, like Michelangelo, da Vinci, Turner and more depended on being able to produce the goods for commissions. They didn't have the luxury of sitting around waiting for some bolt of inspiration to strike them. They had a job to do, and if they didn't do it they weren't paid, and like as not, got no more work.

With the ridiculous cheapness of digital photography there is no excuse not to do at least one shoot a week. My belief is that, if you are at all serious about being a photographer (artist, commercial or photojournalist) you should be doing something, anything, to do with photography at least 20 minutes a day. Just like exercise. That may mean reading about it, doing it, editing images, writing up ideas for shoots, writing critiques or looking at galleries (online or in real life). In music it is generally accepted that virtuosity takes 10 000 hours of practice.

In his book, This is Your Brain on Music, Dr. Daniel Levtin wrote:

"… ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert — in anything. In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals, and what have you, this number comes up again and again. Ten thousand hours is the equivalent to roughly three hours per day, or twenty hours per week, of practice over ten years. Of course, this doesn’t address why some people don’t seem to get anywhere when they practice, and why some people get more out of their practice sessions than others. But no one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery."

In one of the martial arts I practice it is a rule of thumb that to achieve a decent level of accomplishment takes about 1000 hours of training and combat. That's a decent level of accomplishment, not world class mastery by any token.

If you think you can be a creative on demand with a couple of hours a month of having a bash, forget it.

One major issue is that, unlike musicians, sports people or academic experts creatives haven't really got a process for developing creativity. That's what I am going to attempt to address in these journals.

Your first step is to deliberately and consciously set aside "creative practice" time. Half an hour a day, every day, and then an additional "workshop" every week. Keep a diary. Note down what you did, how long you spent on it, and how you felt about what you did and having to do it. Millions do it for at the gym, playing music or any number of other pursuits. It works. If you want to be a creative who can create on demand at a consistently high level, whether professionally or merely for "art's sake" you have to be disciplined.

This is a 2 week assignment. You should be taking at least 100 images per week, and have done 7 hours working at your photography in a fortnight's time. Next time I'll start looking at specific exercises to get you thinking about your imagery differently and being creative within parameters.

Best of luck, and I hope to hear how people are doing. If anyone has specific questions, note me. If people are all asking the same sort of thing I'll do an FAQ.

copyright Furious Ennui Creative Images/Peter Ryan 2009