Tag Archives: Thursday Thoughts

Cataloging The Chaos

Posted on August 30, 2012 | 4 comments

Hands up if you know a creative person who is disorganised, dishevelled and is the physical embodiment of Chaos Theory.

Hands up if YOU are a creative person who is disorganised, dishevelled and the physical embodiment of Chaos Theory.

Do you have multiple projects in various states of completion? Do you jump from one project to the next without finishing the first?

Creative people tend to have that aura of brilliance dropping from their shadows like scraps from the table as mere mortals pick at the morsels to feed themselves. I know a few of them.

But they are hopeless in some areas. Usually in the mundane things that matter, like paying the bills on time or wearing pants when going outside.

The myth of the creative genius (sometimes bordering on insanity) gallivanting around a studio or workspace when the Muse strikes them has been perpetuated over time and needs to be dumped in the bin like a pair of underpants with no elastic and holes in all the wrong places.

Because it creates the impression that creativity is something you wait for. People new to creative endeavours wait for the spark of inspiration to fire up the synapses to create brilliance.

And there are times when creativity is like that.

But not usually.

Most of the time creativity is focused, hard work.

  • Creativity is productive.
  • Creativity requires diligent focus.
  • Creativity is the result of time dedicated to producing work.

This is my own organisational tendencies showing, but the more I read about authors’ work habits and talk to people about their creative processes, they have found a process that works.

Their time is allocated, set aside. They have daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly goals to achieve. From the simplicity of 500 or 2000 words a day, to draft time lines, publication dates and commencement dates for new projects.

Inspiration and creativity can strike at any time, often in the quiet moments when you’re doing something mundane and your brain has a chance to sift through the bits and pieces and put them into an order that makes sense.

It’s not about the physical space where you create. How you use your space is a personal choice. It may be neat and tidy or ramshackle or a museum to kitsch.

It’s about how you approach your creative flow and output. Too few ideas and you pause, waiting for something else to pop up. Too many ideas and you stall for want of knowing which thing to start first.

Chaos can be organised.

Chaos can be catalogued.

Lack of organisation is not an excuse for lack of creative output.

Get organised.

  • Make a list.
  • Fill in a spreadsheet.
  • Colour code a timetable.
  • Alphabetise your books.
  • Sharpen all the pencils.
  • Write down all your ideas in a notebook.

Catalogue your chaos.

ADDENDUM: Jodi has written a fantastic post detailing how she deals with the practicalities of organising the chaos. Click here.

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Boys, Reading and Subversive Acts of Creativity

Posted on August 23, 2012 | 3 comments

In the light of the deaths of three young men recently (two I knew and one the son of a colleague), it made me think about how boys are often silent. Their deaths were the result of mental illness; something that is still a misunderstood disease. It is spoken about in terms that do not lend itself to understanding, therefore, people fall silent.

It is an issue that is not given a voice. Without a voice to speak, the sufferer is left mute.

In our Western society, traditional stereotypes of men are silent stereotypes. Their voices are limited to unctions of power and authority. Their actions reflect such notions, and this is what boys model their lives on.

Boys grow and mature into men who lack the language of feeling, empathy, understanding and vulnerability. They become silent because they do not have the vocabulary to express their emotions and because they have been taught to become so.

I can see this silence in some of the boys  I teach (high school ages 13-18), an inability to understand and express their emotions in a way that their female peers find so easy to do.

So, how do boys and men discover the art and language of feeling, empathy, understanding and vulnerability?

Within the pages of a book (in this case, fiction).

A small percentage of boys read regularly and it becomes obvious they have a broader understanding of the world and their emotions. Their understanding of the world is deeper and they are more perceptive to their emotional states. The older boys get, the less they read (in terms of fiction).

  • Fathers (and mothers), read to your sons.
  • Grandfathers (and grandmothers), read to your grandchildren.

Make reading a subversive act of creativity.

An act of creativity to give boys an understanding of their emotions. An act to subvert the silent stereotype. To give boys, as they mature into men, the vocabulary to express their emotional state.

Make reading a creative conspiracy between you and your child.

A Subversive Act of Creativity Action Plan

  • Read to them from a young age.
  • Model reading by being seen with a book in your hands.
  • Have them draw their favourite scene from the book.
  • Talk to them about the characters and the decisions they make
  • Ask them to express how they feel about characters’ actions
  • Read the book with them and share the experience
  • *insert your own ideas here*

Teach boys to understand feelings, empathy, understanding and vulnerability by examining and discussing the characters and their actions.

I count it a privilege as a male English teacher that I can model this understanding. We need more male English teachers.

Let’s help create men who understand their emotions and have the vocabulary to do so.

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Posted in Odds and Sods on Board, The Writer's Life

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Creativity Takes Time

Posted on August 16, 2012 | 3 comments

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste.

But there is this gap.

For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you.

A lot of people never get past this phase; they quit.

Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this.

And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met.

It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
― Ira Glass (American radio broadcaster)

This quote was posted on my facebook page and it fits where I am at with my own writing. I understand the effort that creativity takes, and I know the feeling when something seems so effortless. But it reinforces some lessons I am learning about creativity.

Creativity takes work.

You have to learn the skills. There are no shortcuts to master a skill. Learn. Practice. Rehearse. Repeat.

Creativity takes commitment.

It is a daily commitment to perform a creative act.

Creativity takes discipline.

If it’s one thing I lack, it’s discipline. Working on it.

Creativity takes time.

I have seen my writing improve in the past three years, and the gap between the reality and the potential and expectation is shrinking.

Creativity Takes Time

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