The shooting stars among us
Towering genius disdains a beaten path
It seeks regions hitherto unexplored
It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor however illustrious
It thirsts and burns for distinction
- A. Lincoln (age 29)
Archive for Creativity
Finding inspiration in art
Its no secret that creators of something from nothing regularly take inspiration and cues from art, among other things. That is why I must share with you the fantastic collection of images from the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections of Cornell University Library - The Fantastic in Art & Fiction.
Drawn! recently posted about this and it is an amazing reference.
You’ll find hundreds of rare illustrations and inscriptions of demons, devils, and other fantastic creatures.
Human Foliage
Black and blonde
And dense and sparse
And short and long
And coarse from wear.
I know it isn’t clear,
But I’m talking about hair.
And not head hair
But hair that grows everywhere.
On your fingers.
And your knees,
And your ears,
And your toes.
Shave it off where you like.
Down in front and in your nose.
And then, if you’re pretty,
Go find a painter and pose.
Because you can make some good money that way without being called a slut.
Afterall, it’s art.
Bridging fissures in the creative foundation with storyscaping
Storyscaping - building the tonal environment for a story - can be the first step for writing. It’s where we can let our thoughts become free, unfettered wanderers on the creative landscape. It allows us to paint a holistic picture of what the story may feel like without worrying about the particulars.
The process is more important than the progress and the questions are more revealing than the answers. The goal for storyscaping is to develop very general ideas from feelings and to write based on those. It isn’t about the words or the structure. It’s about the tone and creative direction. We need to focus on the general direction of the story idea without focusing on the words.
A great tool to encourage this kind of thinking is music. I believe in the power of music to inspire great thought. Music influences our souls in the right way. It provides perspective in the moment and emotions to stimulate fresh thought and intention. It’s so cheesy to think of music as a soundtrack for life, in the same way it is used for film and television. I believe it can serve that purpose though.
Thinking is the Writer’s Curse
When we come up with stories, we generally create a tonal landscape first. Basically we define how the story will feel. The environment, characters and interactions use it as a jumping off point. Most of us don’t consciously decide how a story will feel. But whether we choose it consciously or not, the creative landscape is defined before the rules for the story are created.One of the biggest problems at this early stage is the tendency to think too much. We get lost in details that shouldn’t be focused on before there is a solid tonal foundation for each setting. It’s the curse of the creative - the ability to see and consider the possibilities almost as immediately as the idea appears.
Getting bogged down in the details of the creative direction can make us cross it off before it is fleshed out. This is generally a problem because a good direction may not be good until it is given time to develop. In my next post, I’ll try to talk about what the goal should be for storyscaping and one method to find the way there. I did not invent the word ’storyscape’, by the way.
Write the sin away
I have sinned and I seek redemption in writing. Truth be told, my lie is like a stained white sheet after a busy evening. Though my intentions were good when the words spilled from my lips, the results of the not-so-white lie do more harm than good to me. I set the snare and I must now step into it.
Creature Concept: Worms are good
Here is a bit of inspiration for a worm-like creature I plan to use in a show I’m developing called Aleria. I stumbled on it awhile back and now will use it.
Gordian worms live inside crickets for long periods, feeding on the cricket’s diet. Once fully grown, they inject chemicals into the cricket’s brain brainwashing it and forcing it to kill itself by jumping into the water. Once in the water, the worm wriggles out of the writhing body and swims off in search of a mate.
The Case for Hermitage
New York City is one of the few places in the world that you can be around people twenty-four hours a day and still be lonelier than ever. Loneliness comes, in part, from losing touch with your spirit in an all to busy life. The desperation for personal connection can kill creative intensity and inquisitive thought. On the other hand, constant contact with friends and family can similarly kill creativity because there is never any time to indulge in it.
The root problem for both of these scenarios is a lack of quality alone time. My solution is an age-old remedy for writer’s block - hermitage.
Picture snow-covered pine tops rising just above a rolly-polly horizon. For a distraction from the quiet, a five-minute car ride brings a small but bustling town of retirees, semi-hermits, quiet tourists and younger locals onto the set. But you’re really here for the wood-burning hot tub and the cabin with plenty of space to write.
Welcome to Lake Placid, New York and the McKinnon’s cabin.
I’ve stayed at the cabin and will swear by my personal honor that it is an ideal solution for a week or even a weekend away. The owners of the cabin - the McKinnon’s - are the perfect hosts and they won’t do you wrong. So what are you waiting for? Give it a shot.
Email the McKinnon’s to find out more.
Getting in bed with my characters
Empathy plays a major role in method writing. My job as a writer is to first understand the way my characters feel and how they react to circumstances before I write anything. Rather than forcing specific attributes on my characters, I attempt to allow them to take a more natural path in development. Not only can this result in the most perfect combination of attributes for each character, it also ensures that all the pieces for that character fit together in a logical, believable way.
Sense Memory is an exercise in which I choose one specifically defined experience - emotional or physical - to recreate from my own experience. Then I channel the feelings from that experience into the context of my story, scene and character. Here’s how I do it:
- Choose a scene or character for the exercise. Only one.
- Identify the problem that the character/scene is facing. You can also focus on a problem with your story arc as a whole.
- Pick a very specific place, person, or object from your personal life (i.e. extreme cold, bedroom, ex-girlfriend, homeroom…etc)
- Close your eyes (unless you’re really experienced) and stop thinking about all else except that one experience
- Recreate the environment - however basic or crazy - one object at a time by asking questions of yourself. For example, what does it smell like, how heavy is it, what is it’s texture?
- Once you are immersed in the feelings associated with the environment you’ve created and you can’t think of anything but the moment, you channel it into the scene or character we defined at the beginning
- Allow the environment to morph in your imagination, one object at a time or all at once but don’t lose yourself or the emotions you’ve conjured. Stay connected to the feelings.
- You are suddenly with the character in its own context. Force yourself to deal with the purpose of the scene and begin writing everything that happens in first person. React as yourself or as you watch the character reacting.
Sense memory is a core tool for the method actor. I’ve adapted the basic theory behind it for writing. If you say blasphemy, I say sure. It helps me write, though.
DISCLAIMER: If you permanently damage your psychological state as a result of this rather care-free exploitation of sense memory, please don’t blame it on storyrules.