Writing About Writing Vol 2
I am a great many things…
·
Reader
·
Writer
·
Alcoholic
·
Obsessive personality
·
Pervert
·
Supervillain
Most importantly to these things is that I am a planner. I LOVE to write creatively, evidenced by what
you all read every Thursday here at 7:30am.
In a conversation with the
tallest person I personally know on Wednesday following my Tom Hanks piece, I
explained a piece of my creative process, and the response I got was more or
less “holy fuck dude, REALLY?!!?” and a followup that I should probably be
giving some kind of seminar on that shit.
It’s Sunday, my birthday
was yesterday and I am chilling with my loves right now. I feel like writing about writing.
Specifically, I will talk about my creative process. What will come as a surprise to those of you
(if there are any of you) is that EVERYTHING I pour into a story is planned to
be there as presented. More important is
the fact that I sometimes stick an element in there with plans to use THAT in a
later post (<-- a="" am="" here="" i="" in="" o:p="" pin="" put="" that="" working="">
1 – Once seen,
it is a subject.
Mouth closed, eyes and ears WIDE open. The world around you is the best source for creativity. Take the world for what it is, live your life and let things be as they are. What you should keep in mind when you return to your keyboard is what you MIGHT have said. Simple as that. Don’t make a presentation of what is happening, don’t even try to plan it. Your creative process is what you apply when you return to the process. True Story as a concept is usually born of this. I find myself a week after some shit has popped off thinking “damn, what WOULD I have said?” and applying myself accordingly.
Mouth closed, eyes and ears WIDE open. The world around you is the best source for creativity. Take the world for what it is, live your life and let things be as they are. What you should keep in mind when you return to your keyboard is what you MIGHT have said. Simple as that. Don’t make a presentation of what is happening, don’t even try to plan it. Your creative process is what you apply when you return to the process. True Story as a concept is usually born of this. I find myself a week after some shit has popped off thinking “damn, what WOULD I have said?” and applying myself accordingly.
2 – Writer’s
block… reality, not just some shit in
sitcoms.
Get ahead of it, it really isn’t rocket surgery.
You’re creative right now. Right now that is. The fact of the matter remains that in three weeks you’ll have the shits, you’ll have had a shitty day at work, you’ll have The Night Begins To Shine ear-worming its way through your entire soul.
(Forgive me, I been watching Teen Titans Go all weekend)
Get
The
Fuck
Ahead
Of
It
Your right-now creativity can also be your later-on creativity if you let it. Seed your current scribe with something to come back to in a later one. Concepts, phrases, quotes and silly-ass ideas are RIPE for this. Drop one off, remember it and come back to it to pick it up when you’re feeling less than creative.
[If you see a © or ™ in a post, expect to see that item in a later post… this concept BIRTHED True Story©]
Throw your concepts up against the wall and see what sticks. The worst that can happen is you use one ONE time and not have anything to use at a later time, but the beauty is found in the frequent occurrences of the ones you can return to.
Get ahead of it, it really isn’t rocket surgery.
You’re creative right now. Right now that is. The fact of the matter remains that in three weeks you’ll have the shits, you’ll have had a shitty day at work, you’ll have The Night Begins To Shine ear-worming its way through your entire soul.
(Forgive me, I been watching Teen Titans Go all weekend)
Get
The
Fuck
Ahead
Of
It
Your right-now creativity can also be your later-on creativity if you let it. Seed your current scribe with something to come back to in a later one. Concepts, phrases, quotes and silly-ass ideas are RIPE for this. Drop one off, remember it and come back to it to pick it up when you’re feeling less than creative.
[If you see a © or ™ in a post, expect to see that item in a later post… this concept BIRTHED True Story©]
Throw your concepts up against the wall and see what sticks. The worst that can happen is you use one ONE time and not have anything to use at a later time, but the beauty is found in the frequent occurrences of the ones you can return to.
which reminds me…
3-
self-reverence = continuity
Go back to September and follow True Story up until now. What you will find is a series with continuity that I was not aware I was making continuous until I was MONTHS into the exercise. What I found was that I was best served to come back to jokes and ideas – again as a part of #2 above – when I was feeling FULLY creative and working from them. The name of the game is using what you have to get where you want to be. As a planner in the long game of this, nothing is better to build on than what you’ve already created. This goes for if you did the above and planned ahead or if you just came back to it and picked it up where it was. Use it.
Go back to September and follow True Story up until now. What you will find is a series with continuity that I was not aware I was making continuous until I was MONTHS into the exercise. What I found was that I was best served to come back to jokes and ideas – again as a part of #2 above – when I was feeling FULLY creative and working from them. The name of the game is using what you have to get where you want to be. As a planner in the long game of this, nothing is better to build on than what you’ve already created. This goes for if you did the above and planned ahead or if you just came back to it and picked it up where it was. Use it.
4 – That smart
phone on your hip? Stop doing dumb shit
with it!
Your email drafts are your portal. An idea hits you? Crack open gmail and type a sentence, when you back out of the app, that idea is waiting for you whenever you return to it.
Every time.
Your email drafts are your portal. An idea hits you? Crack open gmail and type a sentence, when you back out of the app, that idea is waiting for you whenever you return to it.
Every time.
5- Your writing should NOT be the only thing you’re reading.
Fiction, non-fiction, history, opinion, politics, news, sports, Reader’s Digest short stories… EVERYTHING. Study your craft. You’re watching for delivery, technical presentation, punctuation, style and cadence. You will use what you see to form your own voice. Don’t limit yourself to shit you like or agree with. Getting involved in ideas contrary to what you like or think helps to form strong opinions and educated voices. Trust me, a week of conservative talk radio to a progressive or vice-versa will sharpen that steel. Same idea applies to shoring up the idea for the most minute of ideas when writing otherwise. Thank me later.
Fiction, non-fiction, history, opinion, politics, news, sports, Reader’s Digest short stories… EVERYTHING. Study your craft. You’re watching for delivery, technical presentation, punctuation, style and cadence. You will use what you see to form your own voice. Don’t limit yourself to shit you like or agree with. Getting involved in ideas contrary to what you like or think helps to form strong opinions and educated voices. Trust me, a week of conservative talk radio to a progressive or vice-versa will sharpen that steel. Same idea applies to shoring up the idea for the most minute of ideas when writing otherwise. Thank me later.
I don’t think my process is
particularly revolutionary. I assuredly
don’t think I am breaking the newest of ground.
What I am recently being enlightened to is that I see things that
exist from angles that many don’t.
Creative writing is such a passion to me that I have gotten back after
it after a funk and will stay on it until the next funk comes. Only difference now is that #2 above might
help me get around it.
Always study. Always approach everything as if there is something to be learned.
What I am, though, is an open book. Got a question? Shoot me an email, IM or whatever. I don’t bite. I want EVERYONE to be great, even if that means I might help someone to be greater than me.
Always study. Always approach everything as if there is something to be learned.
What I am, though, is an open book. Got a question? Shoot me an email, IM or whatever. I don’t bite. I want EVERYONE to be great, even if that means I might help someone to be greater than me.
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