“Fail again. Fail better.”Failure in the Creative Process

I spent my sabbatical writing. I was writing a full length play and I was in what theorist Czikszentmihalyi had termed 'flow.' Suddenly, I found myself fumbling. First, there was writer's block. It grew worse in direct proportion to my fear. Then, when I had pushed the block aside enough to resume, I began to get rejections from play writing competitions. Again, I stopped writing. I began to examine these instances within the framework of the creative process. I studied my writing before and after my block, and found that I was much happier with the 'after' material, when I had put aside the fear of failure. I saw that writing fueled by fear of rejection is inauthentic and anemic. My writing fed on instances of failure, though, was richer than ever. Failure is vital to the creative process. This paper explores the definitions of failure within the creative process and the importance of failure within the creative process. Failure should be reframed as a positive signpost within creative processes; as a call to examine the foundations of one's truthful approach to a creative project. Creativity is essential to human nature, and failure is vital to creativity. Traditional models of the creative process, however, do not tend to address the component of failure as a large part of this process. In these models, failure is, at most, an interruption in the process, a thing to fear. Failure is nothing to fear. One of our greatest teachers is failure. Samuel Beckett wrote, “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” Failure should be embraced as an opportunity to reevaluate one's creative truths.