By ERIK SCHUCKERS

Because October is the Center for Creativity’s One Minute Film Festival, I’ve had movies — and moviemakers — much in mind. I’ve been thinking about John Waters’ first short, made for $30 on a Brownie camera his grandmother gave him. And about a quote by underground filmmaker Andy Milligan: “You see glossy million-dollar Hollywood productions and they’re boring. None of my films are. They may be tacky or crudely made, but they're never dull.”

Watch a Milligan film like “The Ghastly Ones” or “The Weirdo,” and you’ll feel many things, but boredom? Unlikely.

Imperfection is interesting because it’s human, an indicator of passion and curiosity. And when it comes to making things — movies or meals or poems or anything, really — the notion of perfection is not only unachievable, it can actively hinder our ability to engage in creative practice.

First in school, later at work, we’re observed, graded and assessed. Too often what we learn is not to measure our own progress and joy in new ideas and processes, but to measure our selves against a mythical ideal of perfection: the straight A student, the employee who exceeds expectations in every category.

Though we all recognize that “no one learns from their successes,” we may not be attuned to the subtle ways in which perfectionism thwarts our desire to create: promoting self-censorship, preventing us from taking risks, sapping the delight in making something new and replacing it with an anxious focus on the result.

One of the reasons that the Center for Creativity exists is to provide the space and resources to step outside of the perfectionism grind, to discover and explore ways of making with an eye to process rather than product. It’s hard to allow ourselves to be beginners when we feel most valued for our experience and judgment; it’s vulnerable and humbling, and often uncomfortable. But it’s also the key to lifelong learning, and it can also be liberating, and a source of deep and genuine joy.

So what are some practical strategies to help you unleash your inner amateur and harness that energy, to begin to embrace imperfection as a route to creativity?

• Give yourself a limitation. It may seem counterintuitive, but limitations can often unleash creativity, especially if you’re trying something that feels intimidating. Paint without a brush: try a straw, a string, a blade of grass. Write without using the letter “e,” or pick five words at random that you have to use. Watch a C4C Creative Challenge video for inspiration.

• Keep it short. Perfectionism thrives on time: the longer you have to make something, the greater the chance for perfectionism to infect your process. Take a 10- or 15-minute creative break and make a blackout poem from a New York Times article. Doodle. Beat rush hour by dropping into the Text & conText Lab or C4C: The Understory to marble some paper or whale on a drum set for those 30 minutes you’d spend stuck in traffic.

• Bring a friend or two. Creating in community is a great way to shift the focus off the product and onto the process. You can work together on a collaborative project or do your own thing while you catch up on the week. 

Give yourself permission to begin, imperfectly. You probably won’t create a movie like “The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here!,” but that’s all for the best. We already have Andy Milligan’s voice and vision. What we don’t have is yours.

Erik Schuckers is the C4C manager of programming and communications. His collection of poetry, “Pretty Boys in Trouble,” will be released by Seven Kitchens Press this winter.