I have had a really interesting experience this evening. Well, interesting to me. I was working on the plot outline for my current book when it occurred to me to look up the main characters' names and see what they meant. I thought this was a classic procrastination activity, but the results were actually fascinating. I chose the names with very little thought, going purely on instinct, but when I looked them up I saw that their meanings were actually very close to the characters' personalities. So much so that it was a little spooky. I had never read any of these name meanings before, as far as I know, but perhaps some snippets of information were buried in my sub-conscious ready to jump out of my ear (I take things very literally), tap me on the head and say "Oi! Good character name. Use it."
I realise this post would be a lot more effective if I gave you examples, but I am pathologically superstitious about revealing details of whatever I'm working on, so it will have to remain vague for now. For a far more coherent and interesting discussion on naming characters, I refer you to Anne Mini's ever-useful blog.
In more humdrum news, I made good progress with the Essay of Doom today. I have almost 10,000 words of raw material that need to be hammered and honed into a 5,000-word essay - still, that's a far, far better position to be in than starting with a blank page, I think.
Showing posts with label creativity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label creativity. Show all posts
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Be brave
Inspired by Leah's post on the always-inspiring Creative Every Day, I've decided to start doing Jessie's Be Brave Project. It is based on the famous quote by Eleanor Roosevelt - "Do one thing every day that scares you." Just one thing.
The rules are:
I tend to get tied up in knots about 'doing more', and feel guilty for not living up to what I think I 'should' be doing. This can be paralysing. If you focus on all the things you aren't doing, you forget to celebrate the things you do. Everyone has at least one challenge, big or small every day - I think this project is a way of acknowledging that challenge, and then acknowledging your victory over it.
I have struggled with depression and panic attacks for a long time. I don't really talk about it that often, because I do try and focus on the positive, but lately I have felt myself slipping into that paralysed, anxious state again where everything feels so overwhelming that I just want to stay indoors and hibernate. It's especially easy to do when the weather is cold and uninviting outside, and I have a job that requires me to spend a lot of time working on my own. Doing one thing every day that scares me is a way to break out of that feeling of helplessness and fear.
Anyway, I am going to take up this challenge for one month, and see how it goes! Today's One Thing is, of course, running the author's talk at university. Wish me luck. And if anyone would like to join me in this project, I'd love your company!
The rules are:
1) (most important:) MAKE YOUR OWN RULES.
2) Do this for yourself.
3) Make a commitment for the length of time that best suites YOUR needs - one day, one month, one year, one moment...it's all up to you, and you alone. ;)
4) The "brave" or "scary" things that you choose to do can be as big or little as you want them to be. Sometimes it's the little things that can be the most scary!
5) (not to quote Nike, but...) Just do it.
6) Be on your own schedule. You don't need to make a commitment until YOU are ready.
7) This is your unique journey - make it whatever you want it to be.
I tend to get tied up in knots about 'doing more', and feel guilty for not living up to what I think I 'should' be doing. This can be paralysing. If you focus on all the things you aren't doing, you forget to celebrate the things you do. Everyone has at least one challenge, big or small every day - I think this project is a way of acknowledging that challenge, and then acknowledging your victory over it.
I have struggled with depression and panic attacks for a long time. I don't really talk about it that often, because I do try and focus on the positive, but lately I have felt myself slipping into that paralysed, anxious state again where everything feels so overwhelming that I just want to stay indoors and hibernate. It's especially easy to do when the weather is cold and uninviting outside, and I have a job that requires me to spend a lot of time working on my own. Doing one thing every day that scares me is a way to break out of that feeling of helplessness and fear.
Anyway, I am going to take up this challenge for one month, and see how it goes! Today's One Thing is, of course, running the author's talk at university. Wish me luck. And if anyone would like to join me in this project, I'd love your company!
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Sensitivity
"The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this:
A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive.
To him... a touch is a blow,
a sound is a noise,
a misfortune is a tragedy,
a joy is an ecstasy,
a friend is a lover,
a lover is a god,
and failure is death.
Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create - so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating."
- Pearl S. Buck
Monday, March 10, 2008
The sense of an impending shape ...
Virginia Woolf says it better than I can:
"It is worth mentioning, for future reference, that the creative power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book quiets down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep in. Then one becomes resigned. Determination not to give in, and the sense of an impending shape keep one at it more than anything."
"It is worth mentioning, for future reference, that the creative power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book quiets down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep in. Then one becomes resigned. Determination not to give in, and the sense of an impending shape keep one at it more than anything."
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Process again
I have been watching the documentaries on the extended DVDs of The Lord of the Rings all afternoon, which is what I seem to end up doing most Sunday afternoons before we do to LOMLs' parents, and I have been thinking about the process of making films and how it relates to the process of making a book.
When I first started writing novels, I thought the key was to begin at the beginning, carry on until you get to the end and then stop. Ha! No. Well, that's how I wrote my first published novel, because I was writing it as a serial for my cousins, who were sick at home with nothing to do. I would finish a chapter a night and then email it to them. Since then, though, my novel-making has been a matter of writing a chapter here, a scene there ... sometimes just a sentence that I know I will need, saved out in a separate document to be spliced in later. Watching the documentaries of the filming of The Lord of the Rings, my process has come to seem remarkably similar to a filming process. Film actors are required to do scenes in a disjointed fashion for the most part, rather than working through it in a linear way as you would on stage. But they have to make it work. They don't have the luxury of working up to a scene by going through all the other stages of the story beforehand - they just have to plunge right into the moment and give a great performance. And when the performance is there on film, the real work begins ... all the post-production work. There are definitely parallels to be drawn. It is fascinating watching a creative work come together like that, as all the bits and pieces fall into place.
I like the idea of being a 'wordsmith' rather than a writer. I think it gives a more accurate image of what being an author is actually like. You are hammering sentences into shape, welding them together ... it's a craft like any other. And it's a job like any other, too. You don't skip a day at the office because you don't 'feel inspired', and you shouldn't miss a day at the keyboard for the same reason. I have good days where everything's going great, and days where I think I should give the whole writing thing up and get a real job, but most of my days are pretty standard, really ... neither particularly good nor bad, even a little tedious sometimes. But what I have noticed is that, when I read back over what I have written, the stuff made on the bad or humdrum days is just as good as the stuff written on the good days. It's just a matter of putting in the miles. That has been a really good lesson to learn, these past few months.
When I first started writing novels, I thought the key was to begin at the beginning, carry on until you get to the end and then stop. Ha! No. Well, that's how I wrote my first published novel, because I was writing it as a serial for my cousins, who were sick at home with nothing to do. I would finish a chapter a night and then email it to them. Since then, though, my novel-making has been a matter of writing a chapter here, a scene there ... sometimes just a sentence that I know I will need, saved out in a separate document to be spliced in later. Watching the documentaries of the filming of The Lord of the Rings, my process has come to seem remarkably similar to a filming process. Film actors are required to do scenes in a disjointed fashion for the most part, rather than working through it in a linear way as you would on stage. But they have to make it work. They don't have the luxury of working up to a scene by going through all the other stages of the story beforehand - they just have to plunge right into the moment and give a great performance. And when the performance is there on film, the real work begins ... all the post-production work. There are definitely parallels to be drawn. It is fascinating watching a creative work come together like that, as all the bits and pieces fall into place.
I like the idea of being a 'wordsmith' rather than a writer. I think it gives a more accurate image of what being an author is actually like. You are hammering sentences into shape, welding them together ... it's a craft like any other. And it's a job like any other, too. You don't skip a day at the office because you don't 'feel inspired', and you shouldn't miss a day at the keyboard for the same reason. I have good days where everything's going great, and days where I think I should give the whole writing thing up and get a real job, but most of my days are pretty standard, really ... neither particularly good nor bad, even a little tedious sometimes. But what I have noticed is that, when I read back over what I have written, the stuff made on the bad or humdrum days is just as good as the stuff written on the good days. It's just a matter of putting in the miles. That has been a really good lesson to learn, these past few months.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Progress rather than perfection
Hmm, that is something I struggle with. I want things to be brilliant right away. I don't enjoy being a beginner at anything.
My husband and I went rock-climbing yesterday. I haven't been for a couple of months, and my muscles were rebelling against me. Even in fairly low-rated climbs I was finding it hard to stay on the wall - my fingers just wouldn't grip and my body didn't have enough oomph to push me up to the holds. I got really frustrated with myself, and even a little tearful. I started kicking the wall when I was hanging in the harness, and snarling at my poor husband, who was belaying for me, when he offered suggestions. Eventually I managed to complete a couple and get some sort of sense of achievement, but I was berating myself the whole way through and really didn't enjoy the time there until it was over (and I spoiled it for LOML, too).
This is stupid. I can't expect to be perfect if I haven't been practising. And all that self-talk ... "You're so stupid, you're no good at this", blah blah blah. I wouldn't talk to anyone else the way I talk to myself inside my own head.
This carries over into my writing as well. I want it to be perfect right away and get hugely impatient and annoyed with myself when it isn't. Really, all it requires is practice and diligence, and gradual progress will be made.
I can also sometimes be resentful of criticism, no matter how constructive, and think "well then, the whole thing is obviously terrible so I should just scrap it". A very extreme reaction which, I think, is self-preservation in disguise: it's easier to flounce off dramatically and abandon a project than it is to work through the blocks, trudge on, do the miles, work with criticism, endure the whole long process of making a piece of work better. I'm learning on this book that progress is what matters, not perfection. Even if I feel like every word I'm writing is rubbish, the most important thing is just to show up at the page and keep going. It's usually better than I think when I look back later. And by doing my little increments of a couple of thousand words a day, I am a third of the way through a 100,000 word novel.
"I don't know why it is that we fail to talk about art in terms of humble diligence. So much of making a career as an artist consists of the small strokes, the willingness to show up and try on a daily basis." - The Sound of Paper, Julia Cameron
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