If you work in a creative field long enough, sooner or later you’ll experience a knock-back on a piece of work you were convinced was heading in the right direction.
You’ll spend days – sometimes weeks – shaping an idea carefully, following instincts, trying to solve the brief while still making something interesting.
And occasionally, despite your best efforts, the response to the work is simply: “No, not that.”
Sometimes politely. Sometimes with language that could perhaps benefit from a redraft itself.
That’s the part of creative work people outside the industry don’t always see. We need to stay objective and not take it personally – which is fair – but good creative work usually has some emotional fingerprint on it. You’ve poured thought, taste, judgement and probably a few late nights into it.
So even experienced creatives can feel the sting when the output misses the mark.
Over time, I’ve found the best way to reduce the chances of that happening is collaboration. Regular check-ins. Bringing clients into the thinking early. Letting them help shape the direction rather than disappearing for three weeks and returning with a dramatic "ta-dah".
If people are involved in the process, they’re far more likely to recognise themselves in the outcome.
Of course, even that can fall apart when a key stakeholder only appears at the very end with “I just don’t like it.”
Which also happens.
And then there’s the practical reality that creative work can’t continue endlessly until everyone is happy. There’s a budget. A timeline. A point where iteration stops improving the work and starts sanding the edges off it.
I heard Sir Paul McCartney interviewed recently and he admitted he likes adulation. Which felt refreshingly honest. If he writes a song and people love it, that’s what it’s all about.
I suspect a lot of creatives quietly feel the same.
Most of us do this because making people happy with something we made is deeply satisfying. We want the work to impress. Probably more than we admit.
The healthier approach is learning to treat rejection of the work as part of the process rather than a verdict on your ability. Not every idea works. Not every audience responds the way you hoped. Sometimes the challenge is simply finding the version that clicks.
For anyone not in my world, I suppose it’s a bit like cooking a meal for people, watching them take a bite, and suddenly lose their appetite.
Anyway. On to version 7.