Successful creators know they must constantly be evolving and improving. Without growth and the incorporation of new ideas, our work becomes stagnant.

Reaching our full potential is a lifelong journey of hard work, patience, and dedication to development. But recognizing growth and positive change as it happens is always helpful, so here are five things you can do  now to be a better creator.

How To Become a Better Creator

Commit to your craft.

Make it your mission to create something every day of the week. It doesn’t need to be perfect, but it should be inspired and honest work. Don’t produce simply for the sake of producing. Give it your all, even if the result isn’t something you’ll edit later on.

Create for at least ten minutes in the morning or the evening (you’ll probably find yourself creating for longer than five minutes, whether you meant to or not). At the end of the week, you will be seven days closer to the height of your powers as a creator.

Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses as an artist.

Compose a deep and honest evaluation of your content. What are your strengths, considering the following: setting, dialogue, action, insight, purpose? What can you do to develop further in these areas? How can you play up your strengths?

What are your weaknesses, considering the following: description, pacing, characterization, point of view, relevancy? And, what can you learn from them? What can you do to minimize them?

Each time you sit down to edit your work, as opposed to creating, revisit your evaluation to allow yourself to be fully clear and honest with yourself about what you’re doing right and wrong.

Focus on the positive aspects.

Choose one thing you’ve created in the past week that you really love. Set a laser focus on it. Dig deep. Go through every aspect of the work as if none of the rest of your content exists. Think micro. What does it say as a stand alone work? What does it say about you as a creator? Is it vivid? Does it make you feel something? Ask for constructive criticism from friends and other creators. Be specific about what you want to know so that you receive a detailed answer and are less likely to be hit with a passive response.

Then you can bring the lessons you learn to your other projects.

Rework and revise.

Take a crash course in reworking what you thought was perfect yesterday. Look at it again with new eyes and nitpick again. Be brutal on yourself— it’ll make you better in the long run.

Submit.

Finding outlets that will share your work is part of being a successful creator. There’s a certain point that people will come to you, but until they do, cultivate a network of publications and platforms that will generate clicks back to your page. You can share your work all you want, but your reach only goes so far.

Once a week, choose a day that you submit to ten outlets. This is the only way to advance your creative career.

Unplug.

This is important. Put down your phone and your laptop. Read something that inspires you. Take a walk. Have meaningful conversations. These are the things that will fill you with new ideas and give your voice an original tone. A creator who is not processing creativity is the same as working out without taking the time to nourish your body.

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Each of these tips is a simple way to improve your work, but when used together they can take your content to a new level. Do you have a routine or creative steps that you swear by? 

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