It's
difficult to find something to write about tonight, so I'm going to
take the standard cop-out of talking about the fact that I can't
think of anything to write about.
I
actually have a theory about writer's block, or creative jam, in the
more general term. The human brain can do three things (all
organisms do these things, but creativity comes from the brain). It
can input, process and output.
Input
is everything we take in through the senses. Sights, sounds,
conversations, books, movies, music, all of it. Processing is just
thinking, considering, pondering, digesting all of the things we have
taken in. Output is the final result, our completion of the process
by putting something back into the world that wasn't there before.
Thing
is, these three operate in cycles. There are times I want input. I
read, watch movies, examine the skyline, listen to music, just enjoy
everything I can that is in my vicinity. There are times I want to
process. Some of the most fun I have ever had was lying in my bed,
eyes closed but not asleep, just thinking for hours on end.
And
there are times for output. Times I sit down and the words just flow
out of me, when everything works and it all comes together in that
moment of flow that can seem to last indefinitely. Those are some of
the best moments.
And
watching these cycles, seeing them move in different individual
patterns, watching how they affect me. All the different variations
on what I want to do in any given moment, all circling around three
simple needs.
And
if you view things this way, see the times when creating is
difficult, it makes it much harder to get stuck. The stuckness of
writer's block or creative jam comes from fear. Fear comes from not
understanding. If it's part of the natural flow that my words are
not easy today, then I know they'll be back when I'm ready for them
to be. Writer's block stops being an end, and become simply part of
a larger dynamic that I can work with, that is always changing, and
that will never stop moving me forward.
366
No comments:
Post a Comment