Tag: craft

Ideas are Variables. Use your own personal flavour.

personal flavour

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog.

The Idea is everything. Or is it? When working on some art project, the idea, the first concept is the most important. It’s what make us hooked on the work.

But…

All have been done one thousand times. Plus one.

I grew up listening to my father say: “It has all been done before” or “there is nothing new, because everything has been invented” or “We just need to see the variables” or “there is a finite quantity of musical notes and we are bound to find similar combinations in different songs“.

All different iterations of the same thought: It is all finite and it’s a matter or reorganising the material we have to work with.

Or is it?

I still struggle with these teachings, as my insecurities play their part in the evaluation process of the ideas for my writings.

And even though I agree with the principle of this (we have a group of stuff that we use in repetition), I’m not quite convinced about the part that it has all been done before. After all, between his time and mine lot’s of new things got worked on and created.

And I’m not convinced because it lacks the personal fingerprint, the noninterchangeable factor that each one of us puts in all that we do.

We keep evolving and there are things today that didn’t existed back in the (his) day. So I figured there is no argument there.

The same goes for all literary creations. New versions of old stories keep showing up and there are good iterations, bad, awful and so-and-so.

There are repetitions and do overs but are they similar to each other? Or is there novelty in them?

And does this matter? Does it matter how many times somebody reiterates the story of ‘The Beauty and the Beast’? Or that the retelling is being made?

I confess that, I have been caught mumbling my dislike about the lack of originality, and constant reiteration of the same stories. This process of recycling the same old entails a lack of novelty that frustrates me, when there are so many choices out there for making new films, books, and art in general.

But the truth is, there are different ideas, concepts, ways to create something. There are different views that we can take on an old matter.

Okay, we do not start from scratch. We have concepts, reorganisation of ideias, our own experiences and inputs, that we tap into in order to create an art work.

We do not start from an empty vessel…

…or toddlers would be creating full symphonies at the piano, and writing new future classic stories.

But it’s our time in this world, our own personal flavour that makes us grown upon an idea, and infuse it with our own way of work it into a specific creative work.

This is why some creators are so well attached to their initial ideas. They believe in the uniqueness of them, detached from the surrounding world.

They do not share them, afraid they would be stollen and maybe done better by other creator. (Ego scam right here, isn’t it?)Even if it’s not in their best interest to keep them secluded.

Yes, plagiarism happens. And there is a big fish pond out there, just waiting to take advantage of any crumb tossed into it. Mainly in some quick and easy scheme. More usual than not, it get’s eaten pretty quickly and disappears for never to be seen again.

But for the bigger part of my experience, a good idea isn’t fundamentally new. Somewhere, somehow, it had been imagined before. Even if it is a quite clever idea. Clever ideas do not mean successful art pieces.

The idea per se isn’t worth much if it’s not masterly executed.

More, it might be fairly new, and interesting, and well executed, and still end up in the trash can of humanity (of our fellow readers), for a multitude of possible factors.

A fenomenal idea isn’t any guarantee of a well accomplished art work. But it’s a start. And backing up that start with good working skills, a personal style, and some natural tendencies to network, and sell, it might be a success as any other with the same characteristics.

Is it special? Hell, yeah! For the creator, it’s always special.

For the world? Maybe not so much. Not at first and maybe not ever.

But with time, effort, and a grain of magic, it could transform itself into a worldly special.

Having great art concepts, interesting ways of exploring the idea, different backgrounds and experiences to support sources of inspiration, and contributing references, being moved by the need to create good work and devote ourselves to it, is as important as having a great idea.

An example of a frequent failed experience: to successfully transpose an art work into a different means of presenting it.

I was at the movies the past weekend, as I took my daughter to see The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023).

We loved it.

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Let me be clear, so you know where I come from in this subject: I dislike playing highly stressful games. And to me, they’re all that: highly stressful.

They make me lose my calmness, and get me riled up, when there is no logical reason for it. I just don’t handle stress well.

So I do not play video/computer/phone games EVER.

Exceptions were made, occasionally – after I experimented some games and got myself hating the activity, – to Tetris when I was a pre-teen, and the recent Words Of Wonder game, that I enjoy moderately, but rarely play on my phone.

I do like board games, and again, Scrabble is my favorite, even though I rarely play it.

***

I enjoyed The Super Mario Bros. Movie immensely. It has color, action, plot, strong and evolving characters and I know it had a lot of game references that were kind of lost on me (even if my daughter was giving me some tidbits on that).

I specially loved Princess Peach, doing all kinds of fighting exercises in her gown, riding a motorcycle, and basically leading the way. That’s a badass Princess over there!

Also, loved the depressed star, Lumalee:

“In an Insane World, the Sane are called Insane.” – Lumalee

Lumalee…

But how many good ideas like this end up falling short?

Inspired in great works, how many films (reiterations of some art form or another) end up frustrating people’s expectations, for a lack of something in the making process?

It isn’t just the idea behind it. Because the initial idea is known to have had success previously under some other form. It’s something in the current work, in its process, in this particular project, in the people infusing it with a new life.

It’s this specific vision, for this particular iteration of the work, that doesn’t work.

For The Super Mario Bros. Movie it did work beautifully. Game to movie resulted in a very good entertainment moment.

But just look at how many Spider Man movies have been made, to finally achieve some measure of success – even if, to me, it still seems very far from my best experience from those comic books. (Nop. For me, they still haven’t nailed it.)

While working on our special kind of art-poison, listening to our instincts is paramount.

It’s not just having an idea but expanding upon it. It’s working in finding our personal style. It’s knowing what we love and let it lead us to a good iteration of the idea. It’s devoting ourselves to our process. It’s never giving up as long as we see the magic in it.

And having compassion for ourselves as creators. Find common ground between what we know about ourselves as artists, and what we need to be and do.

Ideas are great. Developing the mastery is a messy trip.

But we are here for the long haul. True?

So let’s keep having creative ideas and working on them.

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Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼

 

Reading for the Writer in you

reading for the writer in you

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog so…

Let’s talk about writing!

Today, I want to talk a bit about the importance of Reading to our Writing practices. Not just about what we read or how much, but also the variety we incorporate.

I figure this is not a strange assumption to make, that reading is truly important for our writing practices. After all, Writers are Readers and there’s no other way to go about it.

Reading helps us learn the craft, discover new and important themes, refine our own writer voice, and simply enjoy the fruits of our labor, even if made by someone else.

But what if we can’t read for a while?

Sometimes, we get ourselves into some deep holes, some occurrences to which we call reading slumps, the reader counterpart of writer’s block, forgetting the real pleasure we have while absorbing a good immersive story.

Just like when we forget the real pleasure of writing our own imagined story.

Sometimes, we try to erase the appreciation we have for these activities and instead, we start listening to what we should be doing, or enjoying, instead of what we do love doing and truly enjoy. 

Not just reading serious books is Reading, nor just writing literary fiction is Writing.

But we tend to forget this while pursuing the genres that make us feel more vibrantly alive in our literary practices.

I believe our reading habits are made not just of books, nor certain genres.

We have plenty of material around that adds up to our love for reading. Like magazines, blogs, essays, letters, manga… Our readings are, and should be, made of multiple and different materials, providing us with a wellspring of ideas difficult to match by the sheer diversity of it.

I find that reading different book genres has the same benefits. Having access to other types of literary texts will put us in contact with themes, and ideas, which would not enter our minds if we just sticked with the genre we like to read the most… Or the genre we think we should be reading.

Diversity helps us forge a clear perspective on different subjects and expands our bandwidth so we can embrace growth in our practices.

Keeping this in mind was what got me to contemplate a new reading challenge for this year.

This week I’m organising my readings for 2023, but I’ll not be giving you too many details, because I’ll be talking about it soon enough. I’ve reimagined a reading challenge, more fitted to my current situation, and reading needs, and I am fully devoted to make it work.

This challenge has already brought its fruits:

First, I have a problem! Yep. It’s official. I have made myself take a real, long look at my reading habits, and how I motivate myself to reading, and I found I have a flickering motivation. 

Second, it allowed me to go in search of all the books I own, or at least the majority of them, and have a notion of how I have been making choices just by not choosing. And not choosing is a bad thing, isn’t it?

Third, I’m feeling more energised by the attempts of organising my readings. Which already had made me do things I have been postponing for ages, like creating a sheet for all of my books, and setting a new more objective goal for this year, and not just the amount of readings I’ll be doing.

Keeping my readings organised helps me getting my head clear about what I want to read, and what I need to read, and what would be beneficial if I read.

And I guess that’s why I have not gone about it this way… too much pressure and constraints.

Also, reading for research must have a specific time bound, while reading for mere pleasure has other restraints. And these are important notions to have. Adding to our reading materials must come with a time stamp on it (so you don’t end up like me, as you’ll see soon enough).

And, never forgetting that we should be careful of what we are reading while we are working on some of our writing projects, lest we confuse our writing voice. Creativity fuels herself with all it gathers around her (us). We must be careful so it doesn’t take over while we are writing in our own voice.

I find that keeping our readings more directional towards the kind of writer we want to be is an effort that has a ton of value.

But I also believe that we should expose ourselves to the most diverse lot we can arrange. This feeds our imagination and helps create those worlds we wish to live in or just write about.

Balance is key. And unbalanced is the creative spirit. Or at least is what it seems sometimes… the constant duality of life, isn’t it?

So, the three ideas I wish you would keep in mind:

  • Reading is instrumental to Writing.
  • Choosing what to read is important.
  • Reading diversity is what makes us versatile.

What do you think about this?

Thanks for being here and for being willing to talk about writing!

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Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼

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How books get us writing

writing craft books

I always get inspired when I read. I feel this a lot, specially if I’m reading non-fiction books.

Don’t get me wrong, fiction also gets me inspired, but in other ways. Kind of a different type of resources input.

If I read some fictional stories I usually absorb the inspiration of new ideas without giving it much thought. It’s like if the nuggets of wisdom get inside my head without effort or, let’s be upfront with this, get picked up in a less conveniente usable order.

Reading in our genre of choice can be a well of inspiration and, at the same time, a comparison tool that gets us crippled in our thoughts, if not in our actions.

When I pick up a non-fiction book, if it’s really good, usually I get a bit hung up on it, trying to take all of the great ideas, underlining it and even taking pictures of entire pages, so I don’t forget what I read.

I did a pretty good job of underlining almost every word of books like “Turning Pro” from Steven Pressfield.

This feeling of discovery of a meaningful work is the best inducement for my own creativity. I read it and I wish to share it with the whole world!

But then I hit the meca of inspiration…

Books on the Writing Craft 

Reading what others have written about the Craft usually represents a well of inspiring information.

And not just from the nuts and bolts part of it (“The Art of Fiction” by David Lodge comes to mind) but also from those inspiring essays and articles which form a lot of a writer’s daily work.

“Why I Write” by George Orwell is a good and inspiring essay.

It’s feels like we are given access to the minds of these esteemed authors and creatives, and we get to learn from their personal struggles.

Learning about the particulars of their writing craft, how they see writing related themes, the importance of taking notes and more. Through their experiences we get to work things out for ourselves, and use it all to advance in our own practices and ultimately, to know more about how to be a writer seems like.

“Bird by Bird” by Anne Lamott comes to mind here. It is one of the best books on writing ever!

Reading about the Writing Craft (and other related crafts) give me tools to practice on composing my own works, testing how to’s, and giving me insights and choices.

I always feel that, through reading I am given the lay of the land and a compass to help me find my bearings, through other writers thoughts and experiences on the matter.

I recall reading Rainer Maria Rilke’s work, part of his letters and his biography of sorts, through different sources, and got an immediate sense that it was okay to write in formats not attributed immediately to literature, like letter writing. 

His work lifted a boundary for me on what I thought was a formal writing practice.

Writing letters was fine too. And this got me more at ease with some of my writing activities and abating in that sense that if I wasn’t writing a long genre novel, I couldn’t consider myself to be writing at all… even if I had other ongoing projects at hand, like poetry, and short-stories, notebooks of sorts and (even) blog posts.

This notion was a major breakthrough! And reinforced my belief that books can bring us invaluable knowledge.

I do not consider myself a fast learner. Sometimes I take a really long time to perceive the obvious of a situation. But I always believe I capture other informations, less obvious, about a subject, theme or situation. Sometimes, how I feel about something is my firm indicator of an approachable way to get to know something more profoundly.

I also feel I lack the formal education part of the writing craft and I have found my teachers in books. I feel they help me learn about craft in ways that are more palatable to myself and less structured than a three years degree.

Sometimes online courses are an option and are a great pastime. But they kind of feel like a vanity pursue more than a formal experience. Which is fine, but not always to my liking. Specially because the very good one’s tend to be expensive and it’s crucial to manage all of my resources wisely. 

Books are a teacher of sorts. Through them we get access to formal knowledge, find some good contemporary mentors, or non contemporary ones, and they propose to take all our doubts away… specially if we read a lot and in different fields of knowledge. 

Books are great helpers, good friends and excellent teachers. They answer all questions, patiently give their support in our pursue of knowledge, are always available to repetition, and nurture our creativity.

Finding the answers through books is just a more slowly process to entail. But I like slow. To know is to repeat. To create is to live. To read is both.

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Bye and see you soon.