2023 F like Finish Line

ESSAY ON CREATIVITY:

F as in Finishing

“You should always finish what you’ve started.”

This ready-made phrase that we hear when we’re little. It doesn’t really encourage anyone to finish things, does it? Even today, it makes my hair stand on end. On the other hand… I’m not little anymore, things have changed, the flowers have grown, and I’m reconsidering this phrase. In fact, I love to feel the satisfaction of FINISHING something. And what a satisfaction... Having completed something gives as much energy as pumping up your bicycle tires again. To me it's a source for feeling confident and that I'm on the right road

I’m going to tell you how I started finishing what I started. I did it out of a dark place: envy.

I have dozens of notebooks, maybe even a hundred, but the first one I ever finished was in 2021. The one about the non-trip to Benin - the blog illustration is coming from it. A book started and finished following a flash of jealousy towards a former high school classmate, Clémentine Beauvais. We went to high school together; she became a children’s book author and has huge success. Back then as I was envious I hadn’t read any of her books.

However, one day I watched an interview with her on YouTube. There was a question about her success, or about becoming a writer, and she answered (the wording is distorted by my memory) something like: “I wrote some terrible novels, I knew I would throw them in the trash, but I finished them. Always finish writing the story, even if you don’t like it anymore, so you can start the next one free.”

Haha? I liked it. It pushed me. I immediately knew I would follow Clémentine’s advice. From then on, I finished sketchbooks whose first pages were simply ugly. I finished Inktobers knowing that “completing” would be the accomplishment. I made this sketchbook about Benin, which went along with a university course. I knew it would end at the end of the semester, and didn’t need any other conclusion than: “The semester is over, so the notebook is finished.” Finish on my own terms. But I did that: I proved myself I could finish something. My practice changed. It gave me confidence. Sometimes some books were awful in the process, but turned out great. And I'm not a children book author, nobody is waiting for me to do something good.

Clémentine Beauvais doesn’t know it, but I’m very grateful to her. And you know what? After that, I was able to read her books without feeling envious. They’re excellent and very funny!

I’ll add another little grain of salt: Finishing something just for the sake of finishing it doesn’t take away the pleasure. Quite the opposite: it allows you to release some of the pressure because you’re not expecting anything from it.

How to finish? By remembering that impatience is a form of self-sabotage.
How to finish? By knowing that it’s also OK not to finish :)
How to finish? For example, right now I’m thinking that I’m passionate about this subject and could write more and more. Meanwhile, the text is going off in all directions. But “there has to be a beginning to everything " and "done is better than perfect", I'll just finish it by leaving it as it is.

Moral 1: if you know someone who writes books, buy their books (otherwise just buy Clémentine Beauvais’s)

Moral 2: Finish that book, that online course, that sketchbook you are drawing in. And write to me about how you feel! I’ll be delighted to read it.

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