How to get clarity on the next steps: Market, edit, ship it or die!

Post 36 of Dream, create and make money in the arts 

I am at the tail end of the re-mixing/making of a dance record project but the ‘finishing of it’ date seems to keep moving away.
It’s that ‘art is never finished only abandoned’ issue. When is it good enough to ‘ship’, the little adjustments we (the producer & I) are making – are they really making a major difference or is this just last minute fiddling?

We ‘think’ we just need to get a ‘hook’ vocal to sit better (aka we need to mess around with compression & effects ), there are a couple sound effects we may add plus we then need to do a radio edit… & of course there are the other mixes half done.

However we know we can’t keep perfecting it. It needs to be marketed, heard, to live & breath the life of a song in the real world.

It is just the same for a short film, a play, a comedy routine, a series of pictures or photographs, or indeed for one portrait, one novel..  The process is the same. At some point you have to take stock of the work you have created already and ask the following questions;

Is it ready to meet the world?
Would it benefit from showing it to a select group for feedback?
Are there major issues with it eg lack of plot structure, a joke routine that you are not sure is funny, is there a character arc? Is there a clear through-line?
Does it need to go and be road tested such as taking it out to a comedy club, writers night, open mike night,
Can you take it to the next step eg get actors or vocalists to workshop the piece or  put a few minutes of it on YouTube?
Do you think it needs tearing up & re-editing? Richard Bean spoke of liking to overwrite by 40% & then get the scissors out.

Or maybe even scarier questions such as

Is it time to start finding a venue? Can you start the marketing of it yet?
What can you do to start this process of marketing & creating a buzz eg an EPK (electronic press kit), start your book or CD cover process?
Do you know who your audience is? Can you start being your publicist & talking about your forthcoming project? Podcast on being your own publicist
Can you start, build or leverage your platform eg a website, twitter, Facebook fan page?

So lots of scary questions .. Or they could be but a pause & a replan. Just as an airplane needs lots of tiny adjustments to get to it end destination, so too your plan may need tweaking
Have you done a vision board for it yet? (I have started mine by painting it but have yet to finish it, but this always helps to redirect focus to go back on and look at the vision board, or indeed make one at this tentative stage in the project.

If you are still resisting think on Seth Godin’s Ship It to quote from the above linked post of his

Ship often. Ship lousy stuff, but ship. Ship constantly.

Skip meetings. Often. Skip them with impunity. Ship.

So take a step back calm look at your project , event or show & get some clarity on the next few steps – they may be sequential or simultaneous , so organise a read through & then get comments before the next draft or start website & tweeting whilst also doing the edit you know you need to do.

Images courtesy of Pixtawan/Salvatore Vuono/BK Images / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About this series – Becoming a Successful Creative – The Business of Creativity covering all the angles and issues of putting on a show, exhibition or event to showcase your art
This is a series of daily blogs for you on how to dream up, build, market and sell a creative event, gig, festival, book launch, cabaret night, exhibition of rude plastic cupcakes or whatever creatively inspires you. It is time to create and put on that play about your family, a series of drawings about hedgehogs, the album you have talked about making or the short film you always wanted to write and make. You can read the series in order  Part One or just pick and choose a topic that interests you.