Balancing Act: motivation and creative work in the lived experience of writers and musicians

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the lived experience of writers and musicians in order to examine the relationship between motivation and creative work in the creative industries. Moving beyond understandings of creativity as a discrete task or competence, it demonstrates the role of motivation across different stages of a creative process, projects and career stages. It finds that (1) creative workers’ intrinsic motivation is often intertwined with extrinsic motivators and relationships; (2) creative workers recognise the value of intrinsic motivation, but are also suspicious that it might isolate them from external realities and internal self-criticism; (3) the experience of creative work processes can be painful and dissatisfying, rather than intrinsically fulfilling; (4) creative workers are aware of these complexities and self-manage their environment to optimise their creative process. We consider the implications of these findings for cultural policy and management, especially when addressing questions of autonomy, power and control in creative work.

KEYWORDS:

• Creativity
• intrinsic motivation
• creative work
• ‘good work’
• lived experience

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Creative work (in the sense work that is at its core innovative and generative) takes place outside the creative industries as well, most prominently in research & development. In addition, much work within the creative industries is not creative (in the innovative, generative sense), but mainly administrative or repetitive. For the remainder of this paper, unless explicitly specified otherwise, ‘creative work’ refers to work in the creative industries that is generative, innovative at its core. ‘Creative workers’ refers to workers who undertake that kind of work predominantly within the creative industries.

2. Although research undertaken for this paper predates Covid-19, there may be implications here for managing ‘productive’ and ‘unproductive’ time during lockdown. Some of our interviewees have, in subsequent informal conversations, reflected that Covid-enforced breaks in routine, time spent alone, disconnections from familiar work places and people, etc., have tended to have a beneficial effect on creative work. This was not part of our original project, but might be a useful focus for future research.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Leicester CAMEo Research Institute; University of Warwick Humanities Research Fund.

Notes on contributors

Chris Bilton

Chris Bilton is Reader in Creative Industries at the Centre for Cultural & Media Policy Studies, in the School of Creative Arts, Performance and Visual Cultures, University of Warwick. Professor Doris Ruth Eikhof is Professor of Cultural Economy & Policy at the School of Culture & Creative Arts, University of Glasgow. Dr Charlotte Gilmore is Athenaeum Leadership Fellow at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (Glasgow).