Gentle Reader, here are three more independent views of the creative process and overcoming blockages and boundaries, whether self-imposed or exterior.
Benedict Herrman on Creativity
As a writer, I often compare my creative process to woodworking. I begin with an idea, which I liken to a chunk of wood attached to a lathe that I begin fashioning into a crude shape, the beginning of my desired story. I often don’t know where it will wind up, but I know it will come about, especially when I let the characters speak for themselves.
After the first ‘cut,’ I go through it again, smoothing down the rough cut, checking the language, using a finer chisel as excess verbiage is trimmed away, and clearer wording comes forth as the storyline gradually emerges. Sometimes, I’ll put the work aside for a while, as I’ve often been too close to it to see the story in its fullness — a break from that intense involvement is almost always useful. When I come back to it, I’ll run through it again with fresh eyes and often find some piece of the story asking for expansion, so I use an even finer “chisel,” and then coarse grade sandpaper to begin polishing the piece.
Nowadays I have a group of writers I meet with every two weeks. We read our current projects to each other and make constructive comments, telling the author what worked well along with ideas for improvement. That’s the fine-grade sand paper. Then the final reworking after the group comments is like oiling the wood, smoothing it down to the final, finished form and putting it out in the world.
Bapak talked about this process in different terms, reminding us that all ideas come from God, and it’s up to us to bring them into reality. The proof of our receiving is putting the final product out into the world — how does it fare? We must use our hearts and minds to take the original idea, (which for me always feels like a receiving,) and fashion it into something that works in this three-dimensional material world, and the proof of the validity of our receiving lies in its results.
This final step is where many artists sabotage themselves. I know this only too well, for a long time not trusting that what I did would be ‘good enough,’ but one day out of the blue I received the words, “Seek out rejection.” I laughed, and immediately my fear of rejection was gone! Of course, not everyone will like what I write. Of course, not every publisher will take on my books. So what? Those words changed a dynamic that had held me back as a writer for too long a time.
So, artists, create fearlessly! Show your work! Writers, send it out to get published! Actors, musicians, dancers and singers, keep performing! Sculpting, cooking, farming, handicraft, business — whatever your field, keep at it, because Bapak also spoke of something else, something that he implied was important — that we learn to make something out of nothing. Is this not what God has done with this marvelous universe? Can we not, in our own humble way, follow this example? Whatever form we choose, whatever the inner feelings we seek to express, no matter how small we may think our contribution is… the act of creativity is an act of worship.
Who Do I Create for?
By Jim O’Halloran
This question reminds me of the time a guy at one of my gigs asked me why I play. All I could do was look at him – no answer or even the hint of an answer was presenting itself! It took a few weeks to understand my inability to answer his question. The realization was that for me the question was residing in the same drawer with “Why is the sky blue?” or “Why is there gravity?”
Happily, it’s getting easier to answer such questions, but the vale of the answer is questionable.
Who I create for is a shifting answer related to the changing geography of my awareness and also the fluidity of my external and internal surrounds; changing over time, diet, random occurrences, humidity, etc. etc. And how much of that is predicated on my inclinations and how they might differ from my receiving. I’ve been THINKING: “Uh-oh!”
So, how is the river of my life? Am I giving respect, attention, and love to the eddies? the pools? the rapids? My brother and sister fish? How is my connection with my fellow fish? Am I feeling the love? Are they?
All of that makes me want to climb out of the river and up on the roof to check the condition of my antennae.
“Who do I create for?” becomes the realization that creation is a deep and huge force and anchor which on my best days I gladly ungratefully serve. All props to Popeye: “I yam what I yam.”
How Procrastination Fuels My Creative Process
By Fayra Teeters
Whenever I’m writing anything – whether it’s an article for SICA, or writing / adapting a play for my theatre Masque Alfresco to eventually perform – I always put off the writing process until I’m brim-full of ideas, phrasings, and images I’d like to communicate. I read up on everything I can get my hands on that aligns with the subject at hand. For instance, when I wrote my play adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice series of books, which I entitled, Looking Glass Alice in Wonderland – I spent weeks reading all of Carroll’s writings, plus biographies about the man (Charles Dodgson was his real name) and all of it became fodder for my play. Although there are at least 100 play adaptations of the Alice stories, I wanted to create something new to make it worth my audience’s time to trundle out to a nearby park and take in Masque Alfresco’s version. So, I raised Alice’s age to that of a 16-year-old girl who was journeying through Wonderland in search of herself – whosoever she wanted to be when she “grew up” – no small feat during the Victorian era when girls were expected to fall in line with fully prescribed norms.
Generally, my procrastination takes me into the wee-small hours of the morning when the rest of the world has gone to bed and all’s quiet on my Western Front. Once I dive into the writing process, I don’t like to come up for air until I have a fully formed rough draft – liberally infused with the flow of my Latihan.
As a director / play producer the creative process is entirely inverted. Planning comes first and what a blessing that can be! I recall one particular judgement thrust in my direction:
“Fayra, you’re nothing but a perfectionist!”
“In my defense . . .”
“There is no defense . . .”
“But in my defense: As a director/producer I plan and rehearse the crap out of something, only to let it go during performance, allowing the spontaneous flow of my inner receiving full expression – trusting that all of the planning and rehearsals have grounded me in a solid place, so I can afford to be “in the moment.”
I studied Improv Theatre at the Committee in San Francisco in 1969 and a rule-of-thumb with
improv is the notion of “Yes! – And!” An improv actor is required to accept whatever his scene
partner might throw at him (that’s the Yes! part) while providing add-on value (that’s the And!
part). I’ve tended to view theatrical creations as “Yes! – And!” propositions. No theatre is ever
created in a vacuum; it takes a village – the willing contributions of everyone in the company –
every single voice needs to be allowed the grace of full expression!
Production Photo from 2021 Masque Alfresco performance of Looking Glass Alice in Wonderland
Oh dear, just dropping off to sleep when an idea, a thought, a notion floats up. Like last night: “Supposing infinity, that most horrid and emotionally indigestible word, does not run in a straight line…? The circle proposition is then obviously (albeit hackneyed) valid. Of consequence, if infinity decribes an arc, we would eventually, at least in thought, arrive back at the beginning of our personal history. However, the second time around (cue for a song) we would be forearmed and should be able to tackle our (nobody else’s) unresolved causes for our lack of sleep.
That is how it begins for me. Pretty simple. I liked that “emotionally indigestible” (Must use it again somewhere.