This creation whether it is writing a book, composing an album, making a film, or something else… is human expression. Call it for what it is and don’t devalue your expression. Don’t accept it for adequate when you want more.
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Human expression is the focus of creative work. The focus is not polishing the piece beyond recognition. There’s a professional approach to the work – yes, for sure – but that doesn’t lose the focus of the human touch.
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As a film student/aspiring screenwriter, Jean-Luc Godard’s films were hugely important to me. I’m hardly the first aspiring screenwriter or film student to have been inspired by his works. There are plenty of terrible student films trying to pull off the same magic.
Beyond his films, it was his creativity at finding solutions to problems that has stuck with me.
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The start of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Proud Mary is one of those rather iconic bursts, instantly recognisable when you hear it.
It’s there because when writing that CCR album, John Fogerty was listening to a lot of Beethoven. Fogerty was impressed with the opening of the Fifth Symphony.
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Collaboration is powerful because of these very reasons. Playing with ideas and perspective can be confronting, but going through that process can be exhilarating. It brings chills and goosebumps. It brings surprising results.
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When you find the right collaborator then your creative process gains fertility. There are new ideas coming in. New energy. Other people are better at some part of the process. And a truly wonderful collaboration shares a combined understanding of the work.
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All roads might lead to Rome, but you still have to find the road that works for you. There are many different ways to write and find your way through your story. But what works for someone else doesn't mean it's the way for you.
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My main gripe with films about artists is how it’s shown that they come up with the work. Often the films disregards the process and show the work as coming down all at once. Appearing from the ether fully formed.
This cheapens the work of the artist.
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Trusting the writing the process and following it where it goes takes strength and dedication. Finishing the song, putting it down to the record, then turning to the next tune is a cycle that meant they learnt so much in their process, and were open to new ideas to weave into the songs the next time around.
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Beyond the obvious point of having a finished work in your hands, there is so much value in seeing through a project to the completion. Similar to how trees need the resistance of the wind to develop their strength, completing a project gives you the strength to grow. The strength to stand.
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Frank Zappa had his guitarists to leave a little water out for their instrument if they weren’t going to play it for a few days. It was a way to honour the muse. To keep the communication open. To accept that there was something that was not so easily defined about the creative process.
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Part of a series on tackling creative block.
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Work is never created in a vacuum. And if we try to do that, then that’s a mistake. The audience will never engage with the work in a vacuum. The book, or novel, or song, or film… is relative to everything around us.
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John Swartzwelder is a reclusive writer best known for writing a huge amount of the strongest early Simpsons episodes. He also wrote for Saturday Night Live. Now he writes novels. His writing process involves getting the idea out quick. Finish the first draft as fast as possible. Then work deeper in the rewrite.
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When you give away what you think you should be hiding, the story becomes something else. Sometimes the structure falls apart. You need to have things happen in a particular order. But sometimes changing it takes away the scaffolding that was just there to build the important structure. It’s worth experimenting.
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In 1994, Brian Eno was given a brief for a commissioned piece of music. You’ve probably heard it – the Window’s Start Up Sound.
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In Jack Kerouac’s Belief & Technique for Modern Prose, he wrote many aphorisms for writing.
The key point for writer’s block is number twenty-two.
22. Don’t think of words when you stop but to see picture better
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There are times to plan writing. There are times to stop and think about what you’re writing. There are times to write.
When you stop to think about it too long then you get in your own way. Trust in the process.
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Writing technology doesn’t have to do everything. But it does have to work for you. Finding what works for you – the process and limitations you’re comfortable with – and sticking to it can inspire creativity and a work flow.
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