Trust the process, they say. But what is the process?
The process is:
- Saying yes to a project.
- Avoiding thinking about the project because it’s too overwhelming.
- Breaking the project into manageable tasks and starting in.
- Feeling underwater in the sheer number of “manageable” tasks you have left to do.
- Beginning to see the end in sight.
- Realizing you’ve got more to do than you thought.
- And you’ve got to redo the tasks you did first, because your ideas and process have gotten more refined as you’ve worked.
- Look up and see the deadline looming.
- Start to feel good about the project as a whole.
- Finish not because you’re out of things to do, but because the deadline is here.
That’s the creative process I’m familiar with, and the one I’m watching my friends, colleagues, and sons work through in their production of Mamma Mia! that opens tomorrow.