“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
— Ira Glass
We don’t talk enough about how much of creativity is just dragging yourself through the part where your work makes you cringe. When your ideas feel off. When your taste is sharp, but your output is dull.
That tension — between what you know is good and what you’re capable of making — is why so many people quit.
That, my friend, is the creative process.
You have to let the ideas out, because they will rot if you don’t. The same way a garbage bag sitting too long in your kitchen starts to stink, your undeveloped ideas start to back up. They clutter your creative brain, they fog your focus, and before long, you can’t make anything at all.
It’s paralyzing. So take out the trash.
Make something today, even if it sucks… especially if it sucks. Jot down some ideas. Do some research. Spend the night dreaming of what could be. The only way out of the bad stuff is through it. You need to turn your creativity into a ritual.
Now, I’m not saying every idea you have is trash. (Actually, yes, I am.) But that’s not the insult it sounds like. Most early ideas are half-baked, surface-level, or just too obvious. They’re the first draft of your creative instincts. But they aren’t worthless, they’re just not it yet. But they’re useful.
You’ve heard that tired phrase in brainstorms:
“There’s no such thing as a bad idea.”
Well. Yes, there is. Obviously. But that’s not the point.
The point is that bad, wrong, loud, or weird ideas shake things loose. They create friction. They break the seal on silence. They push you out of perfectionism and into movement. And sometimes, all it takes is one wrong idea to trip over the right one.
So, you don’t get to skip the trash. You don’t get to leap from taste to mastery without first producing piles of stuff you’d rather not look at. Drafts that go nowhere. Sketches that fall flat. Videos that feel off. It’s all trash, and it’s all required.
This is what Ira Glass meant when he talked about the gap. The distance between your killer taste and your clumsy execution is proof that you might not be there yet — but at least you care enough to try. You can see what good looks like, and that’s the gift. The problem is, your skills haven’t caught up yet.
And the only way they will is if you take out the trash. Again. And again. And again.
You have to make enough amateur, forgettable, awkward stuff that eventually, your output starts to match your vision.
You must take out the trash because it’s the thing that clears space for your best work to finally show up.
Every time you create something and release it, even if it’s not good (especially if it’s not good), you’re doing the work. You’re making room. You’re taking out the trash so your mind isn’t cluttered with doubt, and your spirit isn’t jammed up with old perfectionism.
Eventually, something shifts. Your ideas start to smell a little fresher. Your instincts sharpen. You find a rhythm. You’re still tossing plenty out, sure, but once in a while, in the middle of the heap, something clicks.
And it’s good. Like, actually good.
That’s the reward. But you don’t get it without the garbage.
So if you’re frustrated, if you’re stuck, if your work makes you wince… you’re probably doing it right.
Keep showing up. Keep putting it out. Keep taking out the trash.
Keep creating and repeating,
Zack
📖 Design Reviewed: An archive of graphic design history, with magazines and ephemera dating back to the 1910s.
🌁 Graffiti Zines, 1990: Digitized graffiti zines from the Letterform Archive’s collection.
🗃️ Indexing, Filing Systems, and the Art of Finding What You Have: Austin Kleon on how personal archives shape creative discovery.
🌌 Notes on Taste: Brie Wolfson, on how taste forms, shifts, and informs creative work.
Create.Repeat is a community for creatives.
The Create.Repeat Substack is a project designed to be a weekly diary on creativity. Sharing inspiration for artists to keep creating and repeating.
Written and curated by Zack Evans & James Warren Taylor
Each week we will be sharing recent thoughts on creativity, some links helping us stay creative, and a talent show featuring an artist from the community. Thank you for engaging with us.
History repeats. Create the future.
