How do I balance practicality with creativity? I’ve been spending a lot time working on my new WordPress theme. And it has opened a lot of philosophical questions that I hadn’t anticipated. I told myself from the outset that I wanted to make the kind of theme that I would want to use, and I would hope that other people would pick up on it, but I wouldn’t worry about it if they didn’t. But this has introduced a lot of questions about what I want and what is feasible and how much commercial viability will impact distribution. So if you’re working on a website or a website template, then you might be able to pick up on some of what I’m saying.
I know I don’t want to walk away from this project feeling like a sellout. But I also know I need to make some compromises if I want my theme to be functional and have a high degree of cross platform compatibility. I know over generalization can introduce a lot of problems, but I think that I’ve come up with a development model that can be practical without compromising creative integrity:
Get It Right in Your Head
There’s nothing I’ve scolded myself more for than getting high on an idea then taken the time to develop it then realized the idea was stupid and I ripped the whole thing out. The hardest part about this is admitting it’s stupid. When you’ve worked hard on something, it’s hard to tell yourself it was a waste of time; but the longer you hold onto it, the worse the problem is going to get. The easiest way I’ve found I can avoid this is to step back and give myself the opportunity to change my mind before I start developing.
Cut It
In spite of the above maxim, it’s inevitable I’m going to make something I don’t like. When you want to be different and you want to create quality, the simplest solution is to tell yourself that you’re not going to compromise and coordinate with the masses. But you have to ask yourself, “Am I sticking to my guns because I believe in what I’m doing or because I don’t want to admit that I’m wrong?” When I ask myself this question, I know I’m the only one that can accurately determine whether or not my answer is honest. I just have listen to myself and let the chips fall where they may. If that means I’ve got to cut then I cut.
Some People Won’t Get It
I also know that just because I’m into something, it doesn’t mean everybody else is going to get it. That idea unto itself doesn’t bother me. What does concern me is that at the end of the day I have to pay for food and shelter. So if some people don’t get what I’m doing, that’s fine, but if nobody gets what I’m doing, then I have a problem. I can’t subsist on the love of craft.
Nobody Really Knows Anything
Even as I write this post, I know that everything that can be evaluated about a piece of software, especially a WordPress theme, is tirelessly subjective. Getting people to get on board with what your doing has a lot to do with luck. First, you have to get people to notice, then those people have to get it, then they have to like it, then they have to get other people to notice. And I know there’s a lot that can go wrong with that that has nothing to do with the quality of my software. It’s not a pure meritocracy. Crap software often flourishes, and great software is often exploited or overlooked.