I once wrote 12 rules to help newcomers become prolific writers. There was some good advice there, but looking back, most of it can be boiled down to, “Be consistent and results oriented.” Being prolific isn’t about how many projects you start. It’s about how many you finish.

Were I to give similar advice today, I would add a key component that I always did but never considered until my wife, Maria, drilled it into me: don’t be precious about it. To be a prolific artist of high-quality work, you have to allow yourself to move past your brain’s prefrontal cortex. Think of it as your inner critic. No matter how hard you work or study, no matter how careful you are in execution, you will never produce a work that is precisely how you envisioned it. The constant comparison you mind makes between what you’ve done and what you meant to do will falsely convince you that you’ve failed.

But the simple truth is you are not the boss of your art. Art do what it do.

I could natter on about this some more, but a video I stumbled across about the Beatles’ work flow tells the story better than I could. You’ve heard of the Beatles, right? Did you realize that they produced all of their world-changing music over the span of 7 short years? Impressive, whether you dig their sound or not. As for me, after I wrote my “how to be prolific” writing guide, I followed it up by writing six novels in the span of one (Covid Lockdown) year. As you listen to the video, keep in mind we aren’t talking about producing quick, shoddy work. The first, unspoken step is to work and study enough at your craft that you know how to do it well. What follows is trusting that this self-education is sufficient to produce work that others will enjoy. Perfectionism is the enemy of accomplishment. Creating great art requires first creating good art and then fixing it. If you try to make it perfect in one go, you will probably fail. Work faster than your inner analyst and be diligent and you will take your art where it needs to go.

Remember, Nike didn’t invent the concept of “Just Doing It.” They only own the slogan.