We are reorganizing the gaming area of our basement, which means lots and lots of new IKEA furniture. Prior to this, our basement was the space where old furniture came to live out their final years. Florida for couches and chairs.
But new IKEA furniture means lots and lots of assembly, so I’ve been doing that for the last several days. I am no stranger to assembling IKEA furniture, of course. I would estimate that probably around 85%-90% of our house is IKEA furniture. However, with all of the IKEA furniture I’ve put together over the years, I always have to look at the directions to assemble a new piece. But why is that? A shelf is a shelf is a shelf, right? You would think. But a BILLY is different from a KALLAX is different from a VIHALS. Sure, some of the parts are similar. This piece locks in the shelves this way, which is similar to that piece, and so having that previous experience makes the process faster so at least you have an idea of what you’re doing. And even though the finished products might perform the same function, structurally they are quite different, and so naturally the process for building them is different.
Creative endeavors are much the same way. You can write a dozen stories, a hundred stories, but each one is separate, a new thing. A different piece of furniture with different steps. Sure, knowing how a sentence works, knowing about story structure and imagery and character development helps. But you need to learn and figure out how those different pieces fit together in each project. You need to read the instruction manual. And you need to give yourself the time and space and freedom to do that.
I hope this helps.
