I see a lot of motivational posters featuring somebody climbing a mountain.
That's great, but some days the mountain is too high.
Some days taking one step is all we can manage.
Some days getting out of bed and putting your socks on is a win.
Even if the socks don't match.
Probably this is most relevant to those of us who battle with depression, but my guess is everybody feels this way at least once in a while.
This is my motivational poster for those days:
In a previous post, I wrote about how the Oberlo Business Name Generator can be useful for coming up with a fictional name or a business that appears in your screenplay or novel. The same tool can be helpful if you're trying to come up with a good name for a non-fiction book or newsletter.
You just type in one word you'd like to have in the title. The Generator comes up with 100 combinations.
For instance, I'm thinking of publishing a creativity newsletter, so I entered the word "Creativity." Here are some of the titles the Generator came up with, some more mainstream than others:
Power Creativity
Black Sheep Creativity
Creativity Precision
OneMan Creativity
Retina Creativity
Affinity Creativity
Creativity Signals
Simply Creativity
Jumpstart Creativity
Immersion Creativity
Scribe Creativity
High Voltage Creativity
Creativity Road
CreativityGram
Creativity Frontier
Creativity Fix
Creativity Driver
These could work equally well as titles for a book about creativity.
WANT SOMETHING LESS OBVIOUS?
If you want something less obvious, see whether any of the words that were combined with your keyword could work by themselves. In my example, "High Voltage," "Jumpstart," "Signals," or "Retina" could all work as trendier creativity newsletter titles, or as main titles for a book, and you could use a secondary title to connect it to creativity.
I've already posted about using the free Oberlo Business Name Generator to come up with the names of fictional businesses in your screenplay or novel, and for coming up with titles for a non-fiction book or newsletter. It's also a useful brainstorming tool if you write for kids.
For instance, I was thinking about writing a story in which a young child explores a pond and encounters magical versions of all the type of creatures that hang around ponds. I wanted to come up with fun personalities or identities for each creature. To start, I typed "frog" into the Generator. Here are some of the combinations it came up with:
Rock Frog
Frog Chef
Daydream Frog
Sidekick Frog
TopDog Frog
Singular Frog
General Frog
Thunder Frog
Hip Frog
Everlasting Frog
Frog Doctor
Covert Frog
If those don't give you some ideas for the kind of frog the child could encounter, you're not a writer! And I'll bet you can think of other ways that the Generator can fit into your brainstorming as well.
"You have about ten minutes to act on an idea before it recedes back into dreamland so when you're excited about an idea, start writing about it immediately." -- Buckminster Fuller
This is especially important if you have an idea just as you are waking up or falling asleep. Often those ideas are the most creative because they carry a little of your dreaming self.
If you keep a notepad by your bedside you'll be less likely to let an idea escape. Some people prefer to use their phone to record their thoughts, either in a notes app or by recording a voice memo.
Remember not to judge your idea as soon as it pops up--that stops the flow. Sure, many of these ideas will not be worth pursuing, but if even one out of ten has value, that makes the process worthwhile.
PS: If you're not familiar with Buckminster Fuller, check out his Wikipedia profile. Born in 1895, he was an inventor and visionary. Long before most people gave it much thought, he advocated using renewable energy and doing more with less. He hoped for an age of "omni-successful education and sustenance of all humanity."
The pandemic has gotten in the way of many people's usual means of expressing their creativity. However, it has also prompted some of them to find alternatives.
FROM THEATRE TO SCREEN
The Salt Lake Acting Company was about to celebrate their 50th season before the pandemic closed down their theatre. "And [the question] was how do theater people do theatre without a theatre?"
They decided to connect with audiences remotely by producing a series of digital shorts they shared on YouTube. These pieces average five minutes and feature a variety of formats. Instead of just shooting material intended for the stage, they created new scripts.
If you're interested in having a look, this is the link: https://www.youtube.com/user/saltlakeactingcom/videos
HOW TO LABEL ART
Bombay Sapphire drinks company is releasing bottles of their Bombay Bramble featuring the work of three up-and-coming artists on the labels. The company initiated this, but it makes me wonder whether artists could explore doing something similar with other brands that want the public relations value of supporting the arts.
WORKING WHILE WALKING
British photographer and agency owner Rankin says, "I'm currently working from my walk. Every morning between 6am and 8am I walk with my dogs and dictate emails or listen to books...I find myself having to be very disciplined in making sure I find ways to inspire myself...In my opinion, you can be more creative if you find some form of boredom in your life." (The full interview with Rankin is here.)
What can you do to make sure you are keeping your creativity active?
It's easy to feel overcome with anxieties these days, and often that leads to writers block or just a lack of motivation.
Arianna Huffington has a method that's worth trying. She called them joy triggers. Those are pictures, words, or memories that give you joy. They remind you of the positive things in your life, or those you were privileged to have in your life previously.
For ease of use, you can make up a little joy triggers scrapbook in which you paste photos (print them out from your digital files) and key words or phrases. They can represent things that gave you joy in the past, give you joy now, or things you're looking forward to.
It's easy to forget to use them, so it may be helpful to get in the habit of starting and ending your day with them, and also to set a timer to remind you to do it a couple of times a day. Or, if you find yourself feeling low, that can be the trigger.
Below is one of my joy triggers, the lovely Great Dane named Audrey who we have had the pleasure of dog-sitting over the past three years. She's now ten, which is quite old for that breed--I think of her as the Maggie Smith of Great Danes.
Give your own joy triggers a try and feel free to let me know how you get on, either in the comments are at [email protected]
I love the old screwball comedies like "Bringing Up Baby." The characters in those typically were fast-talking, witty, and playful.
Even if your script or novel isn't populated with those kinds of characters, often it's easy and fun to slip in at least one.
If you'd like to be inspired in terms of their dialogue, a great resource is the 1913 edition of Webster's Dictionary, which is easy to access online here:
A conventional character might call someone a crook.
One who expresses himself or herself in the screwball tradition, however, might say, "You, Sir, are knavish, fraudulent, and unjust. You have made a U-turn on the path of rectitude."
Even if there's no room for such a character in your project, spending 30 minutes randomly browsing 1913 definitions will give you more joy than an equivalent period on Facebook!
Screenwriter Michael McDowell said this to his potential screenwriting partner:
"If you’re going to work with me, look at it like we’re working in a bank.
We get in at nine, we have a cup of coffee, we say good morning, then we go to work.
And we write until lunch.
We go have our lunch.
We come back. We write again until three o’clock in the afternoon.
We fold up the writing. We return whatever phone calls and whatever business of writing we have to do.
And we do this five, six days a week.
And it’s a job.
It’s not you sitting with a metaphorical beret in a metaphorical loft waiting for inspiration to strike.
It’s a job.'”
I have to admit I have never worked that way. Part of my motivation in becoming a writer was to get away from the 9 to 5 routine. I've always felt more creative in the evenings, so frequently I write until the early hours of the morning and then hit the sack and sleep late.
However, the part of it that is true for all professionals is that you have to have discipline. You have to put in the time, consistently.
Even if you sleep until noon, you have to devote a certain number of hours to writing and to the business aspect of writing.
FOR PART-TIME WRITERS
Even if you're writing as a sideline, if you want to be productive, setting aside a specific time to write and to do the important writing-related tasks (e.g., finding an agent, learning more about the craft, etc.) is the key to moving forward.
Treat it as a part-time job, even if you're not getting paid at this point.
GO BIG OR GO SMALL, BUT GO
Which works better for you: finding 30 minutes a day several days a week to write, maybe getting up early or staying up late, or working during your lunch hour; or setting aside a big chunk of time on the weekend?
Use trial and error to discover the way you find easiest to be consistent.
NO BLOCKS ALLOWED
In a regular job you're not allowed to say, "You know, I'm just not feeling it today, so I'm going home. I'll be back in the office when I feel inspired again."
It should be the same with writing.
If you are blocked, you have lots of options. They include:
IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE GOOD--YET
There's at least one point in every project when I convince myself that it's no good and I should just stop and move on to something else. Fortunately, most of the time that's not true, it's just the normal "dip" that happens in the middle.
The solution is to keep going. Even if it really isn't good you can make it better in the next draft and the one after that.
The work comes first, the payoff comes later--if you're lucky and, even more important, if you're dedicated.
As I write this, there is a great deal of uncertainty about the near-term future of film and TV production. What is certain is that for at least the next year, productions will have to adjust. What does this mean for screenwriters?
We are all experiencing that ancient Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times." It's not easy, but it's up to us to make the most of the challenges.
If you're low on creative energy right now, you're not alone.
As I write this, we're in the middle (?) of the pandemic and everyone I've talked to says they're feeling lethargic. Most are finding it hard to be creative.
I don't know whether that's the effect of prolonged anxiety, the lack of stimulation because we've all been penned up so long, or something else. Probably it's a combination of factors.
I did a little informal survey for tips on overcoming this ennui and here are the top ones that came up:
If you've found any other methods useful, let me know in the comments or to [email protected].
Our creativity is one of the most useful tools we have for getting through these tough times, let's not abandon it!
In the time of the Caronavirus, it has never been more obvious that we crave certainty.
The uncertainties of the creative life aren't at the level of life and death (except in some totalitarian societies, and we're not there...yet). But anybody who wants to make a living from their writing or other art constantly faces uncertainty, including:
Is this thing I've created any good?
Will anybody want to buy it?
If it's put out there, will people like it?
How long will it be before I have a breakthrough--if ever?
Am I wasting my time?
Even when a writer has a success, the doubts remain:
Will my next work be as good as this one?
Was this a fluke?
LIVING WITH UNCERTAINTY
I don't think we can overcome uncertainty, and maybe it's not even a good goal to have. We've all encountered people who are convinced that everything they produce is great and that they are god's gift to humankind. That kind of overconfidence can succeed for a while but usually leads to a downfall eventually.
Perhaps the most appropriate goal is to learn to live with uncertainty. Here are a few things I've found useful:
If you have other strategies, let me hear about them in the comments or at [email protected]. When a few have accumulated I'll share them in another post.
"In large measure becoming an artist consists of learning to accept yourself, which makes your work personal, and in following your own voice, which makes your work distinctive."
from "Art and Fear," by David Bayles and Ted Orlando
That's easier said than done, of course. It's difficult not to start thinking about whether the marketplace will want what you create, which usually leads down the road of doing what's been done before, in a familiar style. That, in turn, makes your work less likely to stand out.
Here's a fact that is often missed: If you write something distinctive, something very different from what is out there now, it may not sell. But it will get you noticed, and getting noticed is the key to getting hired or getting people to ask to see what else you have written.
What if you're not sure what your voice is or should be? It's not something you decide. It's something that emerges when you write a lot. It may be that you're the last to notice it because it's so natural to you.
Beware of books and teachers who try to "smooth out" your writing. They are not your friends.
I'm not suggesting you shouldn't learn the craft of writing. You absolutely should. But once you have mastered that, let the story itself and your intuition play a strong role in shaping what you write.
image by Stefano Ferrario
The script pipeline is clogged not only with bad scripts but also with OK scripts.
An OK script is the right length, has a story that hangs together, is populated with mostly believable characters, and has no major formatting problems.
OK is not good enough, despite the fact that there are plenty of just OK movies. Many of those started out as better scripts but gradually changed to just OK under the weight of the demands of the actors, the ego of the director, and/or the fear-based decisions of the producer.
What you need to do is write an outstanding script--as the adjective says, one that stands out.
That starts with a fresh idea. Yes, it's true there are no totally new stories, but there certainly are fresh ways of telling the old ones. Recent movies I'd put in that category include Jo Jo Rabbit, The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot (I"m not making that up, it starred Sam Elliot), Midsommar, Ad Astra, Hustlers, Parasite, Booksmart, Peanut Butter Falcon, Honey Boy, Us, The Lighthouse, Yesterday. I'm not saying these were all the best, but they all had something different about them that made them stand out, and quite a few of them were very good.
What's the difference?
If you analyze the films above, you'll see how they differentiated themselves. That includes:
In the best of these films, the level of writing was very good, too. For instance, I thought Booksmart had some of the smartest dialogue I've heard for a while. But it starts with the idea.
Before you commit to your story, take some time to consider whether it stands out from the ordinary. If not, try applying the characteristics above to your core idea.
Writer and producer Andrew Yang told Fast Company, "You should be surprising yourself. You should be challenging yourself. Playing within the bounds of what everything you've seen before has done, you can get somewhere with that. But I feel like it's most exciting when you can show people something new and really surprise them."
What stands in the way usually is our inner critic, the voice that says, "Isn't that too different? If that would work, wouldn't somebody else have done it already?"
I think the best strategy for overcoming that is to tell yourself, "Let's play with this for a while and see what happens." Winning over your inner critic is challenging, but getting it to reserve judgment for a while is easier.
Years ago I decided I wanted to start a newsletter. It wasn't long before I found myself thinking, "Will people really be interested?" and "Won't it take too much time?" and "How would I distribute it?"
I managed to fend off my inner critic enough to play around with the format and content and put together a rough version.
I found that I enjoyed the process and that the material could be useful to aspiring screenwriters like me.
That gave me the momentum and confidence to keep going. I went ahead and published the newsletter and a mention in the Los Angeles Times helped launch it. After a few years, when scriptwriting was keeping me busy, I sold the newsletter on to a friend who ran it for several years and then sold it on to someone else.
What ideas do you have that your inner critic has been blocking? Make a deal to play around with the idea for a while.
You may surprise yourself.
Most of us can identify one or more turning points when we redefined who we are or at least who we want to be.
I think we get one free shot at this in our early 20's.
After that, it usually happens when we are confronted with some kind of crisis.
One of mine was when my house in LA burned to the ground and shortly thereafter I ended up in the hospital with a blood clot in my leg that could have traveled and killed me. I decided to leave behind a reasonably successful career in LA and move to London.
More recently, it was when I had open-heart surgery. That rethink wasn't as dramatic, it was more of a mindset switch to being less hard on myself.
What these have in common is that the usual situation stopped and the future was uncertain. That pretty well describes where we all are right now. Maybe that makes it a good time to take another look at where we are and where we want to be, and what we can do to bring ourselves closer to the latter.
I'm not clear yet what that means for me. Maybe for you it means you'll finally write that book or screenplay you've been intending to write or take a course to gain a new skill, or find another creative outlet.
It does seem that this is another time when a crisis also is an opportunity.
As Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote in Love in the Time of Cholera, "He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.”
