How the creative process is like picking raspberries

I take a lot of inspiration from my dad. He helped nurture my creativity. When I visited my parents’ home today, he and I picked raspberries. As we searched for the berries while snagging our legs and staining our clothes, we talked about the creative process, birthing a bountiful metaphor and the start of a very berry pie. Here’s 3 lessons picking raspberries reminded me about the creative process.

It wasn’t always this easy to pick raspberries. When my parents purchased their home, there was a handful of black raspberries in the backyard. My grandparents also had some at their home but didn’t know what to do with them. My dad took both red and black raspberries from his new in-laws.

My dad attempted to cross-plant the berries. He took a risk. The black raspberries, both my grandparents’ and his own, ultimately survived. He embraced the challenge and was dependent on bees, birds, sun, and shade to do their work. Even squirrels were interested in this new crop. When creating, you may start with an idea, and you need real, physical stuff to make it reality. Art is worth the risk of creativity and use of resources because it means you produced something.

Those same animals? A few years after my dad’s berries flourished into a patch, squirrels started chewing away at the raspberries. Instead of chopping the half overgrown, half eaten patch down, my dad cross-planted a few of the raspberry shoots to the side of the house, thus practically starting over. He didn’t give up on his goal but modified it. He knew the sun and shade ratio was different in the new location. Adjusting, he used “brown water” (his words, not mine) to broadcast the baby patch with dishwater.

The creative process isn’t always a linear formula of ideas + resources = result (or even simpler: proof[s]= product). Creating requires a lot of drafting, making adjustments, waiting sometimes, and teamwork. Ultimately, it’s the hard work, often of both body and mind, that produces the best result. Even today, as I thought about this blog post, the inspiration of the raspberries trumped my draft about integrating professional and personal creativity. I’ll publish that later, perhaps after pie is a distant memory.

My dad loves raspberries, and my mom can’t stand ’em. Yet every year, my brother, dad, and I sweat over picking, and my mom produces a delicious pie (or three). When picking, we look, high and low, taking turns with different areas. It’s a routine I’ve done since the patch was taller than me. I used to wear long black pants, in the hope of preventing scratches. I firmly believe anything worth doing can be strengthened with the help of others, and so my male family members see berries I do not, and my mom pours over the pie.

And just like creativity, art is for the public. Same with this website. I may be the only one writing, but it is for everyone looking for a source of inspiration. My why? I want to change how we think about creative work. It’s about what we DO. So ask yourself, what do I want to accomplish? Who or what do I need to take me *there*? Are you defining your goal by progress or product? And why can’t I get my hands on that raspberry pie yet?