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Business School for Translators

Lesson 11: Overcoming barriers to creativity

Posted by Marta Stelmaszak on Oct 27, 2011 in Business School for Translators

So you want to start a blog on freelance translation, or you want to try to translate a book and get it published, or you want to write an article to a renown translation journal, but… Whenever you sit down to do it, your mind is completely empty, you’re struggling to get anything on paper and when you do, you throw it in your bin. There’s something that stops your creativity. Have a read through these most common barriers to creativity and you may very well sort your problem out!

1. Searching for the one “right” answer

After we leave the school, we have to realise that there is no one right answer to every question or problem we encounter. If you want to set up a blog on translation, there is no magical formula to run one, there is no strict format you have to follow. Instead of trying to narrow your thinking down only to looking for one answer, reverse the system and start generating as many ideas as you can.

2. Trying to be overly logical

The process of creative thinking requires you to let your thoughts fly. It’s not a good time for finding lapses and disadvantages, or even for trying to structure your idea. Logical thinking is the opposite of intuition, and intuition is an irreplaceable component of creativity.

3. Blindly following the rules

If they all run their blogs that way, it means it’s the best and only way to do it. So you start your blog which is exactly the same as 20 other blogs on translation. But very often creativity depends on our ability to break the rules, to question the status quo, and being inventive.

4. Constantly being practical

Not everything has to be useful from the beginning. Sometimes suspending practicality and playing with ideas is the only way forward. Try to take your concepts and place them in impractical “what if” scenarios.

5. Having too little fun

If you take a too serious approach to your creative process, you’ll end up hating it and treating it like yet another annoying chore. Have fun, learn from it, evaluate your new knowledge and corroborate it with other things you know.

6. Becoming too specialised

When your profession requires you to specialise (as very often in translation), you’re at risk of becoming too specialised. You forget how it is to think outside your box and simply can’t generate anything creative. If everything is centred around your legal translation field, try taking a more general approach. Look for ideas in your hobbies, private life, outside your specialisation.

7. Avoiding ambiguity

The good thing about ambiguity (hated so much by translators!) is that we really have to consider at least two different options. In ambiguous situations we have to use our minds outside their normal boundaries. Try to have more than one option open when you’re trying to come up with something creative.

8. Fearing looking foolish

The truth is… you’re not going to get a creative idea if you’re trying to stick with your safe environment. The creative process requires doing new and risky things. You may end up being ridiculed by some, but you may very well end up being admired by dozens.

9. Fearing mistakes and failure

Being wrong is as dreadful to humans as being dead. Death may be more certain (depending on your beliefs), but mistakes are never the end of the story. Making a mistake is only a proof of doing something and there is no such thing as an ultimate failure. If the formula of your blog didn’t work out, just think of changing it.

10. Believing that “I’m not creative”

The most lame excuse anyone can come up with. Everyone has the potential to be creative, but not everyone is going to admit it. Why, they should start doing so many important and creative things then. It’s better to leave it to Einsteins, da Vincis and Beethovens.

Are you guilty of any of these blocks? Are you ready to work on them and develop your own creativity? Do you think creativity is important in doing business in translation?

Marta Stelmaszak

Polski - English - Français translator and interpreter with 6 years of experience, specialising in law, IT, marketing, and business. A member of the Management Committee of the Interpreting Division at the Chartered Institute of Linguists and a Top 25 Twitterer (@mstelmaszak) and Top 25 Facebook Fan Page in Language Lovers 2012.