Creative Process

I remember journaling about the creative process for college classes and thought it was a lame exercise. Now I get it. At the time, I lived in a studio and turned my large closet - which had a big window - into my office. I would sit at my desk with pen and paper until 4 in the morning, watching the neighbors on the rooftop next door or listening to the cheering cubs fans at Wrigley a few blocks away. Mostly it was white noise and a confined space.

I live in the world of my characters, become involved in their fictional lives, constantly shuffling the issues they face just to see how they will react. Sounds schizophrenic, I know. And it's a lonely game when writing, but the loneliness fuels the stories.

The book I'm currently writing is about finance. Dry and boring stuff. My employer was telling me how the outline should look and how to approach each chapter. What he really wants, I think, is for me to sit in his office all day and write. I sat and sat in front of the white screen of the computer. For the first time in a decade I had writer's block, or a better way to describe it: writer's procrastination.

Only after 3 hours in an empty bathtub with notebook and pen propped on my knees did I finally accomplish something. I could hear the entire book in my head, see the way it all fits together. I can't deny that this is non-fiction, but it is still a creative endeavor. I can't screw with my process. I can't make it fit into someone else's deadlines and expectations. Nor can I look at each part individually, I need to develop it as a whole book, not chapter-by-chapter.

This goes for any artist. In figure drawing workshops instructors tell you basically "don't focus on the detail until you cover the page in sketches". If you draw the nose, then move to the ear, you may draw both well but the ear may not be in line with the nose/eyes/chin. The perspective is all off. Your style may change while you are working, and you can end up with a VanGogh nose beside a Monet mouth. Start with the big picture, then work on the details.

New approach to writing the book: step away from the computer screen, write in the distractionless bathroom, listen to the voice of the story. The voices tell me what to do, but I'm not worried because they've never led me astray.

How this writing life started

I knew when I was 8 that I wanted to be a writer. There was a drawer in our living room with my stories, written on that one-inch ruled paper you use in kindergarten. I have a degree in creative writing as proof that I am serious, but also that I am willing to disregard family concerns about my career choice. Yet, only now at age 28 have I finally cut ties with traditional income flow and decided to go broke writing.

A few of my writing jobs: crappy commercials, grants, scripts for documentaries, business letters, and during college i wrote papers for $10 a page.

No more writing for everyone else, or doing office jobs to pay the bills. I've saved some money, cut the cable, don't own a car, and will waitress as needed to avoid the traditional 9 to 5. Two weeks ago I left a good paying job. In reality, as excited as I am about this little experiment, it is scary as hell to know that I gave up security.

Never interested in blogs before, I realize that it is one more way to keep myself motivated. If I don't feel like writing anything else, it's fairly easy to put random thoughts on the page, with the added motivation that someone might be bored enough to read it.