How to be a creative motherf***er

Key Wellness, Self-Care, and Productivity Strategies for Creative People

• Rebuild your taste (don’t rely on internet “algorithm taste”)

  • Notice when you don’t actually know what you like.
  • Treat “taste” like a muscle that needs training rather than autopilot consumption.
  • Get unstuck by collecting inspiration you truly care about.

• Create a “rare” personal inspiration set (mood board)

  • Be picky: collect the few pieces that genuinely pull you in.
  • Use a trigger-based method—save the works that lead you into a spiral of investigation, such as:
    • researching the artist, inspiration, and subject
    • tracking techniques and materials used
    • revisiting a film or image months later because it still sticks with you
  • Step back and combine the saved items until you feel pure excitement (a “why I started” reminder).

• Stop ignoring the masters—learn rules so you can break them

  • Instead of “I don’t need rules,” study established techniques and understand why they work.
  • Then apply them intentionally rather than copying trends for aesthetics.

• Replace aimless copying with targeted study

  • Examples of what to study:
    • composition choices from classic artists
    • Wong Kar-wai’s films for how techniques isolate characters (not just transitions)
    • classic noir + comic-inspired bold colors to spark your own “city”/world-building

• Experiment through productive mess (permission to be unfinished)

  • Allow your workspace to be cluttered with:
    • rough outlines
    • unfinished ideas
    • works you’re embarrassed by (because you’re learning)
  • Lower pressure: make things because you’re finding out what happens, not because they’re “masterpieces.”

• Normalize “not everything has to be good”

  • The goal is simply to make—prototype, test, and move on.
  • Example mindset: do the stop-motion idea even if it takes ~50 frames and doesn’t become “perfect.”

• Final creative goal: have something to say

  • Don’t create just to chase views/likes.
  • Create to share your perspective, tell stories only you can tell, and make work that means something personally.

• Personal example of meaning-driven art

  • The creator makes work focused on recurring themes/characters (lonely old humans smoking), drawing distorted versions until the character “clicks.”

Presenters or Sources

• Wong Kar-wai (referenced via film examples)
• Alfred Hitchcock (referenced)
• Instagram (referenced as a source of trend/shot copying)
• Renaissance painters / classic artists & “the masters” (referenced generally)
• Good Will Hunting (referenced)
• Picasso (referenced)
• New York (referenced)
• Comic series / noir detective films (referenced generally)