Collaborating With Other Creatives

You know that feeling of being stuck and not knowing how to move forward. As creatives we have all ran into that wall of feeling like there is nothing else left for us to create. That feeling of being stuck in a circle trying the same ideas over and over and not making any progress towards your goals. There may be an easy solution or fix that can help get you out of your endless rut.

One of the most powerful ways to boost your creativity and your craft is by collaborating with others. This is a very strong claim but I truly believe in the power of collaboration even though I don’t do the best job at being a good example of this practice but am working on making changes in my life to start incorporating more collaboration into my work.

This is one of those posts that’s do what I say not what I do. I am on this journey of learning how to be better alongside you. This year has been a year of self discovery for me. Learning who I am as a person and how being creative can fit into that. I’ve learned more and more about how my personality works and what things drive me and being a creative doesn’t always make sense when looking at my personality on paper. But I still LOVE creating things.

One of the things I want to start collaborating more on is this blog. I want to use it as a platform to share more people’s stories. By allowing other people to have a voice here I believe there will be more value and hopefully more eyes will find this blog which I hope will inspire more people to share their stories. As you know if you’ve kept up with these posts is that there is value in your story and the world needs to hear it. I don’t want this platform to blow up to bring me fame or wealth but I want it to grow to help inspire more creatives that their journey really does matter and that their story really is important. If you want the opportunity to share your craft and story please send me an email hello@rosesashumans.com.

Working with Like Minded Creatives

There are many different ways of collaborating with others. This first way of collaborating I want to talk about is, finding people who are further along in their creative journey and finding the opportunity to learn from their journey. Finding a mentor who has been where you are now can allow you to ask questions and learn from their past experiences. This can be a powerful tool to help you learn and grow in your craft.

Having someone to bounce ideas off and to let you know if something will work or not can be very powerful, and help bring you peace of mind that you are heading in the right direction with your art. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. There has been someone who has gone before you and they can help you. As you go along your journey there will be someone just behind you as well that you can help get to where you are. There will always be people just ahead of you and just behind you and they are a great place to start in building a community. By helping each other grow you can get even better at your craft.

Don’t fall into the belief that if someone else succeeds your art or craft will suffer. This is called the scarcity mindset. It prevents us from collaborating with others because we see their success as taking away from our ability to have success. People with this mindset gate keep their knowledge and don’t pass it on to other creatives trying to get to where they are. This creates unhealthy collaboration or limits your ability to grow. There is plenty of opportunities for everyone and there is not a scarcity in the need for art.

Collaboration actually creates cross pollination that is healthy for your growth instead of competition. When others find success this can actually help expand the creative space and help create more demand for your music or art. We want to encourage a healthy growth of a community and sharing our resources and talents we can actually strengthen the community we are in and find ourself happier with where we are.

Combining Our Skills

Finding others with a different craft can open up new doors of opportunity for your story. A painter who collaborates with a sculptor can come back with unexpected results opening them up to mediums, techniques and even new ways of thinking. A sculptor can introduce a painter to the world of 3d art where a painter can help a sculptor see the beauty in redefining the world onto a canvas. It is really a beautiful thing watching two differently thinking artists come together to see the world in a new way.

Our story telling can become more interactive when we open up the possibility’s of seeing the world through a different lens. We can learn lot’s by working with others people who could have a different point of view. Finding a community of creatives from different genres or crafts can help you find new inspirations and ask questions that you wouldn’t be able to with people in your same field.

Growing Together

Another practical way of improving your craft is finding online communities where you can post your in-progress work instead of just the final product. This allows you to get feedback quicker and to make edits as you create so you have an even better final project when you finally finish. Having a feedback cycle is beneficial to help you grow and learn as you create. If you wait until your project is finished to receive critique or feedback you learn slower and can’t implement new things and ideas until your next project.

These platforms offer a great place for collaboration and growing together. We should be creating in isolation. I’m going to stress that a lot in this post. Collaboration is such an important thing if you want to be successful as a creator.

An article I found by Creativity Chronicles says, “Not only does working with others allow for a greater range of creative expression and exploration, but it can also add to the overall impact that an artwork has on the viewer.” By working with others we can create an even bigger impact in the world with our projects. We have talked about how we want to share our work because we believe in our story and want to help others. By working with other creators both our stories can find a wider audience and help more people see that they are not alone.

Collaboration can help you build more connections with others which can have a positive benefit on your mental health as well. Working with others should be bringing you joy, emotional support and accountability. If you aren’t finding this in your collaborators you may need to rethink who you are working with. It shouldn’t bring you more stress to be working on a project with someone else.

Conclusion

By working with other creatives we open ourselves up to new opportunities for both growth and success. It isn’t beneficial to ourselves to work in isolation and stick to ourselves. Great opportunities lay beyond the doors to open collaboration with others both in our same field of art and other areas as well.

Some benefits you get from being in a creative collaboration community are finding a boost in your own creativity, learning new skills, healing in your mental healthy and finding a community of people that care for you. We would love to hear how you are collaborating with others. In the comments tell us how you have benefited from collaborating with someone who creates in a different craft than you.