Six Types of Creative Failures and How to Learn from Them

Courtesy of master choreographer Twyla Tharpe

In November of 2016, I started writing a dystopian novel with seven points of view. It was so complicated, I had color-coded charts hanging on the wall to keep track of the threads.  I kept telling myself, “It’ll all come together,” but it never did.

My doomed novel was what choreographer Twyla Tharp, author of The Creative Habit calls “a failure of concept,” which is an idea that’s flawed from the get-go. I was feeling uneasy about the political situation and allowed my anxiety to take the lead in my creative work, plunging myself into what felt like a maniacal fever dream. There was no intention or plan for the story: it was as if I was building a skyscraper without blueprints.             

I also experienced what Tharp calls” a failure of skill.” Dystopian novels aren’t my expertise, and I didn’t bother to learn what makes them work. I just grimly plunged ahead and ended up with a big mess.

Failure is a wonderful teacher especially if we are aware of why we’re failing.  In addition to skill and concept failures, Tharp writes about a “failure of judgment,” which is when we hang on to things in our work that we need to axe.

Usually, the failure of judgment happens because we are sentimentally attached to something in the work which might be charming on its own but distracts from the whole.  For instance, I might go off on a tangent about my late grandmother’s breadmaking rituals, and it might be evocative and lovely, but if doesn’t further the plot of the novel, it has to go.

Tharp also talks about a “failure of nerve.” A wonderful idea calls us, but we don’t grab it by the tail because it’s too daunting. I have a friend who keeps talking about a musical he wants to write, but it never goes beyond that.

Then there’s “failure of repetition.” Something works well for us, and we decide to repeat it over and over. Tharp uses the example of Walt Disney’s success with his cartoon “The Three Little Pigs.”

It did so well that he made more pig cartoons, which tanked. Disney learned from the experience saying, “You can’t top pigs with pigs” and went on to make Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

Finally, Tharp identifies “the failure of denial” which I see frequently in artists and in myself. 

We know something’s wrong with our work, but we say, “Maybe no one will notice.” Yes, they will notice and every time that thought occurs, we need to stop kidding ourselves and address the problem.

It’s useful to reflect on creative failures, and to pinpoint the reasons they occurred. Can you identify one of Tharp’s failures in your own life? I’d love to hear about it and what you learned from it.