Friday, May 22, 2009
Respect the Brain, Tame the Impulse
For the record, the title of the post refers to that famous quote from Tom Cruise's delightfully assholish character in Magnolia, "Respect the cock, tame the pussy." I felt compelled to mention that because it has been brought to my attention that people don't understand every reference or segue that makes sense in my internal dialogues.
Like many posts in this blog, this is about writing, and personal creative goals as a whole. I've never been a methodical person, and that wasn't a problem for a long while. But now I find myself wanting to take my personal creative interests seriously because it turns out that a life of doing one's job in a half-assed manner and getting drunk or stoned at the end of the day isn't particularly fulfilling. And so in finding myself in this situation, and also finding myself in need of going to at least one tae kwon do class a day for at least three days a week, I find myself finding myself with a very small window in which to find time to do creative things that I find fulfilling, such as writing.
Thus, the question of how one is to be methodical about creativity.
This book I'm reading, Wild Mind, has lots of great creative writing exercises that can help you get your writing mind in shape, but I'm still left with the question of how to get to the point where I'm actually sitting down, writing. So let's talk about how to actually set the table at which I can sit and write.
First, there's internal physical chemistry. Caffeine, a high-protein diet for clear thought, and possibly 'smart drugs' (legal ones). I can experiment with these things in an effort to find the write (heh) combination. It will take time, but I consider this the simplest element of the equation.
Then there's external environment. I've set up a desk for my computer in a good little nook in my apartment and even have a keyboard tray for ergonomic reasons, but a) this room is close to the street outside, which is a major inter-town route along which many loud Harley-ish motorcycles zoom and b) I have a next-door neighbor who is desperate need of not only front teeth (both top and bottom) but also an for understanding that making noise for the sake of making noise is an ultimately fruitless way to find meaning in life, and that his little yapping machine of a dog is never going to be an obedient dog no matter how many times he shouts at it in a 5 minute span because it is a fucking chihuahua that obviously abuses crystal meth.
So there are difficulties with my apartment as a writing environment. Unfortunately, the library in town has very limited hours and none of the coffee shops around here have any atmosphere other than serving as a caffeine fueling stations for patrons of the ubiquitous strip malls.
There are some things right at hand that can help me write, such as music; classical or ambient music always calms me down without making me sleepy, and I usually turn some on before I start to write. Perhaps I can also use music as a way of leading up to writing? Perhaps listening to music as I putter around a bit, cleaning up because a neater apartment makes it easier to write?
More important than all of this, though, is the simple act of writing. I need to do it every day, whether it's creative writing or maybe just writing a stream-of-conscious daily journal (though, come to think of it, that might be a good way to lead up to creative writing).
All of these questions and thoughts come down to the same thing, which is respecting myself, my intellect and my wishes. I can brainstorm all I want, but the key is to understand that this is what I want to do; writing fulfills me like nothing else, so it's something that I have to pay attention to and work on each and every day.
Like many posts in this blog, this is about writing, and personal creative goals as a whole. I've never been a methodical person, and that wasn't a problem for a long while. But now I find myself wanting to take my personal creative interests seriously because it turns out that a life of doing one's job in a half-assed manner and getting drunk or stoned at the end of the day isn't particularly fulfilling. And so in finding myself in this situation, and also finding myself in need of going to at least one tae kwon do class a day for at least three days a week, I find myself finding myself with a very small window in which to find time to do creative things that I find fulfilling, such as writing.
Thus, the question of how one is to be methodical about creativity.
This book I'm reading, Wild Mind, has lots of great creative writing exercises that can help you get your writing mind in shape, but I'm still left with the question of how to get to the point where I'm actually sitting down, writing. So let's talk about how to actually set the table at which I can sit and write.
First, there's internal physical chemistry. Caffeine, a high-protein diet for clear thought, and possibly 'smart drugs' (legal ones). I can experiment with these things in an effort to find the write (heh) combination. It will take time, but I consider this the simplest element of the equation.
Then there's external environment. I've set up a desk for my computer in a good little nook in my apartment and even have a keyboard tray for ergonomic reasons, but a) this room is close to the street outside, which is a major inter-town route along which many loud Harley-ish motorcycles zoom and b) I have a next-door neighbor who is desperate need of not only front teeth (both top and bottom) but also an for understanding that making noise for the sake of making noise is an ultimately fruitless way to find meaning in life, and that his little yapping machine of a dog is never going to be an obedient dog no matter how many times he shouts at it in a 5 minute span because it is a fucking chihuahua that obviously abuses crystal meth.
So there are difficulties with my apartment as a writing environment. Unfortunately, the library in town has very limited hours and none of the coffee shops around here have any atmosphere other than serving as a caffeine fueling stations for patrons of the ubiquitous strip malls.
There are some things right at hand that can help me write, such as music; classical or ambient music always calms me down without making me sleepy, and I usually turn some on before I start to write. Perhaps I can also use music as a way of leading up to writing? Perhaps listening to music as I putter around a bit, cleaning up because a neater apartment makes it easier to write?
More important than all of this, though, is the simple act of writing. I need to do it every day, whether it's creative writing or maybe just writing a stream-of-conscious daily journal (though, come to think of it, that might be a good way to lead up to creative writing).
All of these questions and thoughts come down to the same thing, which is respecting myself, my intellect and my wishes. I can brainstorm all I want, but the key is to understand that this is what I want to do; writing fulfills me like nothing else, so it's something that I have to pay attention to and work on each and every day.
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