What’s Your Motivation For Creation?

Over the years I have asked myself this question many times. Whether in music, art, design, writing, or any other context in which something is poured out of me into a work, I am always considering the driving force behind it. Recently I have been asking the question again because of this blog. I had a few motivations for adding a blog onto my design site:

» Increase traffic to the site for brand visibility and to generate new clients

» Open a creative outlet for my love of writing

» A way to share helpful tips and tricks with others

» A forum for interaction with friends, potential clients, and others

After starting the blog a couple months ago I quickly discovered the “business” of blogging. I never realized that blogging is a profession! Soon I was reading about how and when to monetize your blog, schedules to work by, how to grow your traffic and more. I have to admit, the thought of generating some passive income via advertising on the blog is very intriguing to me. I mean, I have my wife and three kids to support, so every little bit helps! But any time that I introduce the consideration of financial gain into the creative process, my past struggles and experiences remind me of the potential dangers.

“True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.”

~ Albert Einstein

My best understanding of a truly artistic creative process is that it starts when the creation can no longer be contained within the artist. It is a passionate outpouring of the heart and soul. This is why anything less does not strike us in quite the same way. This is why commercial production is not nearly as amazing or fulfilling to the artist or the consumer as a true artistic creation. This is why, for example, most pop music does not grab at the depths of our souls anywhere near the way a piece by Mozart or some other innovative creative musician can.

In the past I have poured my heart and soul into different creative processes with gusto. Music was my first love, and I wrote songs without concern for their acceptance or popularity, but instead because they were exploding inside me with a desire to be sung. But the moment I began receiving payment for my musicianship, the balancing act began.

Because the moment you begin looking at the creation as a means to provide income, the motivation has the potential to shift. It can – and often does – affect the creative process and therefore the end result.

Think about it: if I were to write blog posts solely for financial gain, I would be studying the blogs that are most successful at generating the highest revenue. This would likely result in one of my primary goals becoming to create massive roundups of lists of helpful tools or tutorials or downloads. EVERYONE loves those roundups (me included). Then I would probably explore some different niches and come up with a master plan of how to generate the most traffic and subscribers in as little time as possible. Soon I would be covering my blog with all kinds of advertisements and Google Adsense and watching the money roll in.

But would I be writing anything solely because I wanted to? Because I enjoyed the process or the discussion that resulted from it? Because it was inside me and had to get out?

Or would I post only those articles that were most guaranteed to generate income?

I’m not in ANY way saying that advertising on your blog is wrong, or that pop music is worthless, or anything like that. In fact, I am hoping that at some point I will find a way for this blog to provide some extra finances along with remaining a vehicle for the motivations I expressed earlier. What I AM asking is this:

How do you balance the desire to generate income and your dependence on it with maintaining the purity of your passionate creative process?

What do you do to make sure your art – whatever it is that you create from the irresistible, uncontainable urges within – remains intact, even as it brings you financial reward?

Please share your thoughts in the comments below. I am so anxious to learn from those of you who have battled with these types of things, and perhaps we can get enough discussion going to all learn from each other…