THE CREATIVE PROCESS (THE EMOTIONAL JOURNEY)

THE BEGINNING: START WITH PICTURES

My best ideas "pop" into my head after ruminating about the problem for a while. Things suddenly become clear. I get a picture. I see it.

Looks like it works that way for C.S. Lewis too. I found this gem on writing for children. Here are a few quotes from his essay.

"With me the process is much more like bird-watching than like either talking or building. I see pictures. Some of these pictures have a common flavor, almost a common smell, which groups them together. Keep quiet and watch and they will begin joining themselves up. If you were very lucky (I have never been as lucky as all that) a whole set might join themselves so consistently that there you had a complete story: without doing anything yourself."

"But more often (in my experience always) there are gaps. Then at last you have to do some deliberate inventing, have to contrive reasons why these characters should be in these various places doing these various things. I have no idea whether this is the usual way of writing stories, still less whether it is the best. It is the only one I know: images always come first."

In my creative process, I use morning pages and journaling as a way of capturing pictures and ideas. I don't really know if they will lead anywhere quiet yet. I think and obsess over these ideas on walks, journaling and doodling.

Then when you have a concept you like, the creative work starts. You'll need to construct the story and invent. This is the UGLY MIDDLE part. You're gonna try out a lot of ideas.

ON THE MORAL OF THE STORY

I think a common mistake, one that I made and still make is trying to fit a moral to the story. When you start off from that place, I find the story becomes too preachy, less inventive and just not fun. I've done this plenty of times. Trust me!

Here's what C.S. says:

"Let the pictures tell you their own moral. For the moral inherent in them will rise from whatever spiritual roots you have succeeded in striking during the whole course of your life."

I love this. Let the moral come out of your work organically. :)

THE MIDDLE AND THE END

REAL TALK

ART SCHOOL LESSONS

STAGES

THIS CLASS