A familiar and murderous paradox of agony and ecstasy hangs heavily in the air. The tumbleweed of thoughts fly by and get stuck – but only for a second - on the petrified tree of the task at hand.
Last week my specific creative challenge changed for a third time in 24 hours. The brief was the same but the space and time available to do the work altered. It became uncertain, unknown and unspecified. That may sound simple but imagine designing the Louvre but getting told halfway through that it needed to fit in your back yard.
How to solve? What to do? How will this work? Can I find that clever fix in my stupid head? Can I do the right thing? Something that nails the challenge facing me? An idea that will work with all this uncertainty? Well can I?
Trying to be a creative person involves balance alright. Living with that dull ache of potential failure and the thrill of firing that gun. Snipers forever sitting and waiting - watching me walking the tightrope of melancholy and orgasm. At the same time the evil twins - 'ho' and 'hum' - sitting on my shoulders twiddling their thumbs - argue a while and them sum it all up for me in two words. Useless Cretin.
If you have ever had a good idea have you tried to recall how it came about? Even writing about the process of creativity baffles me. I've tried but it's not really a topic that can be explained. Developing an idea is about making all the right choices. To get to the right thing – a brilliant idea. And I've realised I don't actually enjoy explaining what I am doing or how I got there. It just gets in the way and it's the wrong thing to discuss.
What are you doing?
As it is every day riding on the plains - no matter what gun-slinging town I'm in – people are always firing off irrelevant questions about the wrong thing. Why? What and How? demand answers. I am beginning to think I am not wired to answer questions like these sometimes. Questions about the wrong thing.
I do try hard to answer everybody politely but some things quickly tip me into a kind of defensive sarcasm and derision. It's unintentional but I can lose patience very quickly amid the need for explanations. It reminds me of my pet hates – the TSA, stupidity and neediness. They don't deserve the respect of an answer. They are all about the wrong thing.
My body language is probably deeply objectionable to many people when they talk about the wrong thing - but I'm simply not interested (capable) of explaining my reasons to people anymore. It just is what it is. Get over it.
Anyway back to the point…
I have decided to share my principles instead. If you want to ask questions about being a creative, ask me something about these. They are my principles of creativity.
Principle 1. French Kissing The Artful Dodger.
Figure out how to lie, cheat and burn the evidence. I have long held that when it comes to creativity you have to be completely happy with the idea that you may actually be a complete fraud. I'm utterly convinced that luck and practice (mixed with serious theft) are the raw materials of 'being' creative. Don't ask me how you get to learn luck.
Principle 2. Eating The Twilight Trash.
If you're not a voracious 'rat' sniffing out brain food then it's going to be hard for you. Without the primal hunger for edgy stuff that others would question then consider quitting now. The more people frown at your habit the more likely you are that you are onto something. You have to snuffle, harvest, grab, snap, graze and glimpse with equal measure. Use whatever capture tool you have to hand – but make sure you store the stuff for immediate recall.
Principle 3. Emptiness is Your Nature.
Your normal habitat is solitude on a Sunday. Your home terrain is sparce - a cold expanse of zero. An ice field in Winter. You wander around the streets early or late - but always on your own. Definitely on your own. As you crawl emotions are shooting through thick and fast through your veins. This is bad heroin but you are good with it. When your mind is that blank and running on empty it will work on its own. You will get that nudge. - "Psst. What about glass walls?"
Principle 4. '10 Easy Steps to Creativity!' - Get the Fuck Outa Here!
No. There are no steps and it's not easy! Creativity drives me crazy. It needs to drive YOU crazy too - or it isn't real. Creative things happen in the penumbra. You will never know where the idea really came from or why. You just have to try to get the majority of conditions right. For me that means (A) Quality of Input - Trusting the source and the context you are working in. (B) Splendid Isolation - Being left alone to 'be' but in good company. (C) Coordinated Chaos - Managing the time for distraction within messy dynamics. (D) Publicly Pressured - Knowing that I'm accountable - on point for a result. Pressure is the framework. Always.
Principle 5. Be annoyingly connected to everything.
Making connections between (and amongst) weird - ostensibly unrelated stuff seems to me to be at the root of it all. That grape, those cars, this axiom, the idea of Giraffes, that political movement. That would make a great opera. If you are not making these connections then you are probably not made for the high wire. The air is a bit thinner too so make sure you fully understand the idea of Giraffe.
And…
In order to maximise the 5 Principles - stop the existing soundtrack of your life. Stop being the same person you were last week. Change yourself and your dopey habits, be different. Learn a different accent - use different words. Download new music. Change your bugbears - they define you. Get a life. Get a better camera. Write a protest song. Eat an eel. Don't remain that boring, sad unhappy idiot. Get out. Look at yourself and remember you are one day closer to death. I try. It's hard.
What did creativity do to deserve me?
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