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.
People read to connect with a story. Or they read to learn. They talk about the story with friends because it connects with them. They see themselves in the text. Or they’ve learnt something important from reading it.
Rarely has someone sat down with a friend over coffee and gushed over complicated sentences they couldn’t understand.
The creative process is so fascinating. Over the last twenty years or so, I’ve collected a lot of different strategies and techniques to tap into the creative process. These come from reading books and interviews, talking with other writers and artists, watching documentaries, and searching out strategies that worked for my favourite writers and artist.
Writing a book – or a film script, or an album of music – is a marathon effort. It’s a long game and the end is rarely in focus or in sight. Pacing yourself is essential.
But sometimes throwing in a quick sprint can shake things up.
Writing quickly, without worrying about what goes down, for a short amount of time can get you past a hurdle. It can push you to focus on something other than the scene or issue that’s obstructing your flow. And it can give a quick breath of new inspiration.
Once you do the sprint, step back.
This part is essential. Get some space. Let the dust settle. And when you return, check again for the path forward.
The only time AI is The Answer is when you’re talking about Philadelphia basketball.
The rise of AI and LLM in creative fields is, at least at the moment, concerning. It takes the human element out of what should be about human expression. And in other applications, like the military, the application of this technology dangerously takes away the human element of decision making.
It also seems to me that AI is a misnomer at this point in mid-2024. The technology has been burdened with that name and all the promises that comes with that title but without the ability to deliver.
I have talked with clients who have used AI through ChatGPT, Jasper and others for blog posts, social media content, and even video scripts. The general consensus is that they wouldn’t use it for a finished product. They strictly use it for idea generation.
My own stance is that I do not use these tools when writing. The only part of my ghostwriting process where AI is used is in transcribing interviews.
It baffles me as to why you would want people to spend time and energy in reading your book if you didn’t put that energy into it. Nick Cave, via Stephen Fry, put that more eloquently.
When I’m ghostwriting your manuscript, it will all be written by me.
There are always things that will go wrong. There are things that will make that particular creative moment – the draft, the acted scene, the musical take – unique. The chaos in seeing how an artist reacts is what makes a performance interesting. There are some strategies you can use to welcome chaos into your own creative process.
When we work within limitations that we set ourselves, we rely on our inspiration and creativity to find solutions. This makes the story work. There are problems we could get around by breaking our own rules. But these rules keep us honest as writers. It forces us to find an answer that draws from the world we’ve written.
The legend goes that while recording When Doves Cry, Prince was unhappy with the mixing process. He said to the another singer that he wished he could remove the bass line. The singer asked why he couldn’t?
This clip with Steven Wright from Conan O’Brien’s podcast is a wonderful moment of two comedians talking about creativity.
It’s more than about writing jokes. It covers a core point about the creative process.
I have this picture of the Wright Brothers’ first powered flight on the wall of my studio.
The brothers struggled for years to get an aircraft to take off, to be controlled, to be powered. They changed designs, drew inspiration from other discoveries, and they crashed often. Orville broke his leg and four ribs. They failed multiple times. After another crash, Wilbur said that flight wouldn’t be able to be achieved for a thousand years.
When Brian Eno was working with U2 and Luciano Pavarotti for the song Miss Sarajevo, he observed that opera singers are cheats. Or professionals, depending on your perspective. No matter how the work is done, the professional or the artist understands that the right way is the way that works for them.
