Just a heads up to you creative folks, the pieces of fiction that have changed my life probably weren’t produced by folks attempting to make life changing fiction. They are usually pretty small and simple stories that were a bit heavy handed with their themes. Or a small part of an overall series that resonates with me
Absolutely. This Absolute cheese has never gone far from my thoughts. This is how shallow I am.
My two cents: just create something imperfect.
It will be ugly, it will have errors and flaws.
But you will gain something, you will learn to make something better next time.
Just stewing in your own juices and never putting anything out there is the same a standing still.
Unstick yourself first and only then can you tell how far you can carry your creations toward perfection.The writing experts call this “write ugly”. Get it down somewhere, out of your head. Only then can you look at it, evaluate it, edit it, etc.
Bob Ross taught painting the same way. Start with something, anything. Change it if it’s wrong, let it lead you. Happy little accidents. But if you never open the paint…
Right, but here’s the trick: I can’t do the same thing twice. So if I write it ugly the first time, that’s the best that’s ever going to be. What a waste of its potential! 😅
i may be old, back in the day we called it practice
Almost all creative acts create stuff that isn’t “objectively valuable”
We’ve been tricked into thinking that’s what creativity is about. It’s only worthwhile if it’s “succesful”
That’s not why humans have creativity though.
If you want to write, just write.
Get some paper, a pen, sit your butt down and write.
Don’t use a computer. Not yet. Commit to writing what comes out. Keep the mistakes, the bad spelling, the weird phrasing, everything.
Just let it out.
Then get away. And I do mean away.
Throw it in the corner, maybe behind the cat litter or the dog food or perhaps near the toilet or stand your bed lamp on it.
Let it get cold. Maybe a week.
Then go back, read it and, now, you can you the computer or the cellphone to start cleaning up the thing and improving it.
Why the computer hate?
If I tried to write long form by hand, somewhere around two-thirds down the first page I’d have nothing but illegible chicken scratch.
No hate anywhere. Writing by hand is a commited effort. The moment the ink sets, it’s there. No back space to hit and erase whatever you wrote because it doesn’t sound good. You can cross it out but when you go back to read what may have survived you remember what you rejected in the moment and that may actually be useful if tweaked or reviewed.
And writing by hand is useful. It actuates the body. Works it. Develops fine motor skills. It can even let out cues to mental states in how the hand writing comes out. And it is physical. It exists. It is not an ethereal string of bits that may cease to exist if an electrically charged storage medium fails.
This is great advice, but doesn’t work for everyone. I’ve found the snowflake method gives me more motivation.
It works by identifying the core element of the story and expanding with ever more detail. I prefer this method because if you get an idea in your head you can start writing about the most exciting things first. Flush out cool ideas first and it encourages iterative working so even if your first couple passes are garbage (as they will be) you get to refine them as you mull things over in your head.
https://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/
And is it not good that it does not? Serves to show that creativity is a unique process to each individual. If it works, that is what it matters.
Who’s filming me in bed?
I get a lot more writing done when I sign up to publicly read my work at various regular events around town. Having a deadline makes me get something done and usually a topic or theme gives some direction. It really helps with letting go of the preciousness of ideas.
Reading for an audience with a tight time limit forces you to think about why every sentence is on the page and why you structure certain genre stories in certain ways. Writing for horror has improved my love stories and comedic work because like with genres of music there’s an expected pace to these things. When you slot into the audience’s expectations there’s an ease to the process but you also start to see when to twist and veer, how to break expectations to create fear or heartbreak or laughter.
Just like with software development, the iterative feedback loop between writing a piece, performing it, and then incorporating audience response into the process is stronger the tighter you can make the loop. If you try to write one epic novel you get limited feedback. If you start writing a series of connected short stories, each one is a new experiment in what works and what doesn’t. Rewrite the same piece for new audiences and shows in the same way a stand up comic refines an act.
I have got to create an award winning, globally recognized photograph.
There’s always a next mountain to climb. After that it’ll be trying to get away from fame, reconnect with the family you started after the last bout of “creative block” you went through. Then it’ll be documenting the impossible landscape of infinite darkness within the walls of your new House. Then it’ll be achieving academic notoriety for your astounding analysis of a documentary film nobody has seen. Then it’ll be writing a best selling post modern masterpiece of a novel. Next you’ll be chasing the dragon of getting meaningless upvotes in obscure corners of the internet. When does it all end?!
Zampanó really fell off after that last one.
