When the idea comes

The spark of creation. Where does it come from? Have you experienced it yourself or are you just a fan of the arts rather than a member of it? Both are great as they need each other to exist. The initial jolt of a thought coming from nowhere and how that can lead to a bigger, broader idea or fill in a missing piece of a puzzle that completes a piece of work. they all happen. Sometimes it comes fully formed. Other times you must dig deep to find the treasure to make the piece work for an outside audience. The artist tries their best to translate, express and recreate what they are seeing or hearing in the ids eye or the internal radio only they can hear. Either way i is a reaction.

Creating stories is almost as exciting as getting to tell them for others to enjoy or dislike. At that point it doesn't really matter, the work has been done. By the time someone reads or looks at your piece of art that you stressed out you may have created many works of art since then. Each piece is its own living and breathing entity. There are many methods or mediums to create in and I have worked in a few of them. Each method you venture into will have different results. Photography, writing, artwork, or performance, each gives a different approach for creativity to enter your minds with. That is what we do as storytellers, at least when it works even at its most basic level.

I have found writing to encompass it all. It is the most rewarding thing I have dipped and then jumped into like a cannonball. Having always written, but never claiming to be writer as I do now. Prior to the books it was a needed quantity that made it part of the project and not the entirety. A means to an end. Art is up there but that seems to be more of a spiritual thing or a way to work things out psychologically as I have always used it for therapy.

It is true what they say when you write you are a creator of worlds. Hopefully in a successful manner. What I mean there as far as flow of story, not sales. Some shitty books have outsold masterpieces. It will always be that way in creative endeavors. Sometimes art does not quite land right for you or the audience. Do not worry. The next one is coming down the shoot and you have now learned the lessons of the previous works. Acknowledge and move on.

When I write I put a sign on the office door stating as such. Why? Well for one I need total concentration. Why? I am not in the office. Right now, when I am writing I am in the middle of Nebraska during the apocalypse and inhabiting many characters as they try to figure out their new life while keeping theirs. If I get interrupted suddenly it is not the end of the world, I am annoyed behind my desk. When writers are writing, let them. It may take them twenty minutes, an hour or more to get back to that place in their headspace. When I write I see the move right in front of me like Iron man’s heads up display. Clear as day in my minds-eye.

The creative impulse is almost like you are a direct channel from whatever is out there and you are being fed like a radio signal and your fingertips express what is sent into the brain, and simply documenting it and turning it into a book.

Ooga Booga!

V.