How To Just Start
Right now I’m at the beginning of a new project, another spacesuit I’m going to design and build for a short film. And as usual, after taking a little break, I’ve got a lot of resting inertia to overcome. The usual advice is to “just start!” but it’s not always that easy. So when I find myself dragging my feet at the beginning of a project, I have a few tricks that help me get moving, and before I know it, I’m in the middle of an exciting project again. Read on for four things I do when I need to Just Start.
Now brace yourself, some of these tips and tricks are complete opposites of each other! But you’ve gotta have a lot of options available for different situations, and sometimes I go through a few of these (or all of them!) before my project really gets going. And if you have any surefire ways of building up momentum at the start of a project, I’d love to hear them! Please share them in the comment section at the end!
Quick Jump:
Tip #1: Hunt for Inspiration (But Beware The Inspiration Cliff)
Some inspiration images I gathered for my Symbiosis project in 2024.
This is a natural first step when wanting to get some momentum for a new project: why not hop on the internet and look at what’s already out there? Well, this can be tricky for us creatives. Depending on my state of mind, the phase of the moon, and whether I ate breakfast or not, looking at a bunch of amazing work by other people can have two different effects: I either feel incredibly inspired, or somewhat depressed. Usually, the first few things I see will have the first effect (very inspiring!), but something weird happens when you realize that you could scroll forever and never reach the end of this infinite trail of wonderful things. Is it jealousy? Brain fatigue? Dry eye syndrome? Could be any or all of the above. I just call it “The Inspiration Cliff”.
It’s not always the same shape - sometimes I can look at 200 beautiful things before falling off the cliff, and other times it only takes 4 or 5. But the key is to stop looking at things before your motivation gets zapped. So be discerning about your inspiration search and don’t get distracted. Look at things that are really relevant to your idea, and ignore things that are just gorgeous but not useful to your concept. Whatever you do, don’t scroll forever on the internet! Set a timer and stop after 30 minutes. For a productive inspiration hunt, multiple, short sessions are much better than one long marathon.
Tip #2: Tidy Up
Ah yes, procrasti-cleaning: one of my favorite ways to pretend I’m starting my project! The way to make this actually work as a motivator is to limit yourself to a shallow tidying session - NOT a deep clean! You’re just trying to create space to work within and get moving in your creative space, whether that’s a dedicated room or your kitchen table.
So just think about setting up the area for what you’re about to do, and remove anything distracting, like leftover materials from your last project, or the napkin holder that’s just always there. Just take 15 or 20 minutes to make some dedicated space for your work. Sometimes just moving around in my studio with my project on my mind is the perfect rolling start for my creative engine.
Tip #3: Make A Mess
There’s something very powerful about committing to a mess, and honestly this works pretty much every time for me. I visualize what my studio will look like when I’m in the middle of the project, and I make THAT my goal. I grab everything I’ve gathered for inspiration, any materials that might be useful for my build, my sketchbooks, pens and pencils, and I start noodling around with things. I’ll print out any inspiration images I’ve collected and tack them all up on a board so I can see them in my space. If I’m not ready to draw anything, I’ll trace something from an inspiration image and just doodle on top of it.
Before I know it, I’m sketching ideas, making cardboard prototypes, and I’ve got physical evidence of the project happening in front of me. From there, as long as I keep showing up to my creative space, I can jump back in and keep the ball rolling. Bonus: this mess can be great motivation to finish your project too!
Creative chaos is my happy place.
Tip #4: Speed Date Your Idea (i.e. Do Studies)
Maybe the reason you can’t start is that you’re not 100% sure what your idea is yet. This happens to me a lot. One way to flesh out your idea is to do some studies or experiments around the general idea and let your final concept come from what you discover in the process. For 2D work, your studies could be a bunch of loose sketches. For 3D, make small-scale sculptures out of cheap materials like toothpicks and modeling clay. Use any format available to you that lets you make a physical representation of the thing in your head. Work fast, and don’t just make one, make 5 or 10 or 20. While you are cranking out these studies, keep in mind that none are too precious. Aim for some great ideas and some terrible ones. Explore different angles and don’t erase anything. Practice not judging anything until the process is complete.
Making the thing physical over and over again will reveal how little or how much you have already figured out about your idea, and you’ll consider things you completely missed when it was just an invisible thing in your head. At the end of your study session, look at the heap of ideas you’ve explored and select the good ones to move forward with. Somewhere along the way, without knowing it, you’ve officially started your project.
I hope these ideas are helpful to you the next time you need a little boost at the start of a project. Give them a try and let me know how it goes! Speaking of which, is procrasti-blogging also a thing? It’s time for me to take my own advice and get rolling on this spacesuit. I’ve already gathered some inspiration, so I guess my goal for the day is to make that mess. Let’s goooo!