While We Dream: Creative Process Often Misunderstood

In the midst of a creative life and after countless conversations with other Creatives, I've come to believe that many people understand very little about their creative process and the creative process in general. Expectations--defined and reinforced by social mores--often have to do with achieving goals based on tangible production. For a writer, that means word counts and page counts. But, really, creative process does not bow to our everyday expectations.

Writers often talk about "productive days" versus "next to nothing" days. And our idea of what is productive and what is not...well, our conscious, every day, practical minds usually have very limited, skewed views of what our process "should be".  In fact, we consciously have very little (or no) clue about what's going on in the creative undercurrents!

As a creative writer--or painter, sculptor, dancer--my job is to remain curious and explore possibilities, both on the page and off. Knowing the "right" answer is not my job. Knowing exactly how it's going to play out--not my job. Exploring the truth of my characters--yes, my job. Exploring human dilemmas, impossible dilemmas, the agony of surrender and transformation--yes, my job.

Remaining curious--absolutely my job.

Trust and faith in the complex and mysterious layers of my creative process--yes, my job.

Transformation--the Stuff of Life and Fiction

"ALL CHANGES, EVEN THE MOST LONGED FOR, HAVE THEIR MELANCHOLY; FOR WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND US IS A PART OF OURSELVES; WE MUST DIE TO ONE LIFE BEFORE WE CAN ENTER ANOTHER." ---ANATOLE FRANCE

The Loose Novelist

This advice from Alan Watt's wise how-two, THE 90-DAY NOVEL:

“I didn’t try to figure out the ending, but rather, imagined a sense of my hero at the end of the story. How was he relating differently to his father? What had he come to understand as a result of his journey? How was the dilemma resolved? What was the visual metaphor, the image that captured the essence of my story at the end?

As I pondered these questions, ideas came to me, and I realized that they were a goldmine of images for what preceded the ending.

Imagining our hero transformed is a sure way to gain insight into our ending, while eliciting images and ideas for what precedes it. We are not after a concrete series of events, but rather a sense of how the hero has been altered by the end. This sense leads us, in time, to that concrete series of events. Of course, the story never unfolds exactly as we had imagined it. If it did, there would be no reason to write it.”

WRITING RULES

One of my favorite writing rules comes from Dwight V. Swain from his wise and practical book TECHNIQUES OF THE SELLING WRITER (University of Oklahoma Press):

" 1) Separate creative impulse from critical judgement.

The first a most essential step is to recognize the human tendency to mix the two.

Then, walk wise around it.

To that end, adopt a working rule of "Create now....correct later." Promise yourself the privilege of being as critical as you like, as soon as the first draft of a scene or story is completed.

Until the draft is done, however, stick with impulse. Let yourself go in a heat of passion. Forget the rules. For as Balzac said, "If the artist does not fling himself, without reflecting, into his work, as Curtius flung himself into the yawning gulf, as the solder flings himself into the enemy's trenches, and if, once in this crater, he does not work like a miner on whom the walls of his gallery have fallen in; if he contemplates difficulties instead of overcoming them one by one...he is simply looking on at the suicide of his own talent.""

That said, fling yourself to the page!

WORD PLAY

Every writer knows word play is addicting. And, happily, readers flock to those writers who express themselves with originality and authenticity. By that I mean, the images evoked are vivid and often surprising, and the words feel "right" for the narrative world they bring to life.

My seven-year-old daughter and I are currently enjoying the series, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON. We look forward to our nightly installment, and always we end up laughing out loud.

Today's playful description comes courtesy of Cressida Cowell, the series author, and Toothless, Hiccup's tiny and sleep-deprived dragon: "Toothless crawled up from his place at Hiccup's feet, like a small, enraged hot-water bottle. He stormed up Hiccup's body, digging his sharp little claws into Hiccup's tummy as he went, up to Hiccup's forehead, where he sat and hissed furiously. 'Toothless a-a-awake AGAIN...'"

It was the "...small, enraged hot-water bottle" that had us belly-laughing last night. By now, we know Toothless well, and we can picture him perfectly as he steams up Hiccup's front to perch angrily on his head. So the next time you're in the middle of your story, give yourself full permission to play with your words and let the unpredictable prevail.

As Toothless says, "S-s-set fire to this! DON'T set fire to that!...Mister Hiccup just stop being such a B-BOSSY-BOOTS and give a dragon a chance!"

THE WARRIOR WHO WIELDS THE MIGHTY PEN

WRITING MEMOIR IS NOT FOR WIMPS.

Life of Fiction

From Kenneth Atchity's A WRITER'S TIME:

Fiction isn't identical with reality. Instead, dramatic fiction gives the impression of reality. Aristotle described it as an "imitation" of action. In many ways we prefer the imitation to reality. Fiction has a definable shape, a satisfying closure. When you read a good book or see a good play, you walk away with a feeling of having experienced something definite, something conclusive. Unfortunately, life itself doesn't often provide such a well-rounded feeling. We go to the theater or the bookstore to find fictions that are philosophically, morally, or dramatically more meaningful than those we encounter in the day-to-day consternation of modern life."