The Artist's Way, Check-In - Week 1

I read the Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and am now following the weekly tasks. At the end of each week, she requires you check-in and review any noticeable creative or spiritual changes. I discovered I'm too hard on myself, I don't believe I deserve to have fun, and rediscovered past enemies who once knocked my creative self-worth, and have started to review and over-come them.

The first week had a strong focus on what she calls creative affirmations, and the 'voices' we hear when we say them, known as blurts. It sounds a bit weird at first, but hear me out. I wrote the affirmation, "I, Gareth, am entitled to a fun, creative life." As I wrote it, I heard myself saying, "But how will I afford it? I don't deserve it. Only if I do enough work." It's the critical side of your brain, and the build up of past experiences and beliefs that stop us being true to ourselves. I took this blurt and re-wrote it to say, "I, Gareth, deserve a fun filled creative life and have all available resources to do so," a much more positive statement that permits me to work at something I enjoy.

One of Cameron's other exercises required I travel back in time and picture past doubters who made me doubt myself. A few people instantly came to mind; past bosses, parents and friends, and I soon realised these people were the source of my blurts. The idea that I can only have fun after hard work, work being anything non-creative (as how can work be fun?) stems from hard-working friends at uni who made me feel lazy (through no fault of their own) for focusing my energies on creative tasks. It's also a lack of self-worth, me believing that I must work to achieve and prove myself, as opposed to writing just because I enjoy it.

Later, I wrote, "I, Gareth, am a successful screenwriter," and suddenly a blurt shouted, "You've never made a good film in your life." I instantly recalled an old demon from uni when I made a film and got a really bad grade. I hated the film too, and when I saw my friends had done much better than me, which in fairness, they had, that was it. I decided I wasn't a filmmaker and might as well give up, and in those first few years after uni, I couldn't finish a script for deciding it was rubbish and worthless.

It's been fascinating to discover the moments in life when I've adopted a negative view to my creativity, and I'm glad for these exercises teasing out my monsters, giving me a chance to face them and send them back into the abyss. I feel more confident with my writing, and more comfortable with myself. I feel able to turn up at the page each day and write because I want to, and will not let failure get in the way, or my strange guilt that makes me feel I should be doing something more productive.

I'm remembering those who have praised me in the past, and am ready to let myself have a little more fun, which will lead me in good stead as I head into week 2, rediscovering a sense of identity.

Top Five Things to do when snowed in, from a writer’s perspective

They say us Brits are never ready for the snow, and when it comes have no clue what to do except drive into ditches and call snow days at our schools and most places of work (even if just for the excuse). I must agree the snow (that doesn’t want to leave) is becoming a bit of a chore, but perhaps being snowed in again wouldn’t be so bad if armed with armed with this top-five list. It’s a perfect opportunity to break out the creative child within and get down to some serious writing fun.

 

1. Story Games

I’ve only just read about Rory’s Story Cubes, a story game involving six dice with images to generate ideas to be used in a story. You cast the die, and whorl away with a story to fit. It’s much like online story generators, but these cubes in a variety of themes, including Actions and Voyages, turn a writing tool into a well packaged afternoon game. I’ve even seen a picture of the cubes used to represent Ned Stark's storyline from A Game of Thrones. Simple, honest, geeky fun. 

2. Poetry

Yes, I can feel your eyebrows turning from here, but poetry can be fun. I read Stephen Fry’s book, The Ode Less Travelled last year, and he reminded me how before distractions of the internet and television that poetry and writing exercises were key entertainment. There are a variety of closed-form poems, acrostics, rictameters, or perhaps you could play with a serious sonnet or laugh with a limerick. Think of it like doing a cross-word with a chance to create something unique. Here’s an example of my own patterned poem.

The

Man of

Snow

A

Carrot for a nose,

Two lumps

Of coal

A

Silly hat

To keep him warm

Whilst we all eat within our

Homes, until upon a sunny spell,

That melts away the fluffy white,

We venture out, and gasp upon

The melt; a carrot that was once

a nose, two lumps of coal that

once were eyes.

3. Seek

This sounds both odd and obvious at the same time, but venture out (as far as your snow boots can carry you) and seek inspiration. Notice how different everything looks, and feels. Does it remind you of any far gone place? A ski resort? A Disney film? Take pictures. Build a snowman, or do what I did and help push a car up the hill, doing you community service for the day, then write about it. Embrace this different sort of day, and see if it gets the synapses firing!

4. Read/Watch

Dig out your DVD collection, put on that new series you got for Christmas, break out a book, or even read a script. I know that time old phrase, along the lines of you must read, read, read if you want to write, write, write gets rather annoying (and therefore probably true), but today you have time. Enjoy.

5. Write

You heard me. Write that project you’ve been putting off.  I used my snow day to write a ton of pages for my thesis screenplay, and now would use any extra time to write a scene for my new play, unless of course I were to be distracted by any of the above.

A simple list, but hopefully will inspire any creative stuck in the snow to get their story juices flowing.

Can We Be Creative Workaholics?

I've been reading the Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, a truly wonderful resource for 'blocked artists', and stumbled upon an interesting addiction apparently used to block creative energy; workaholism. As I read and ticked most of the boxes for a typical workaholic, I tried to make sense of how it applied to me, as I'm mostly a workaholic with creative projects. Not that I write more than anyone else, but seem to focus on writing and don't do much else, finding myself clogged and over-tired. Is it possible to be a creative workaholic?

"If I had more time I'd have more fun." Her phrase pretty much sums me up. I put off things that make me happy to achieve a perceived higher goal. I feel I must working on creative projects if I'm to make it as a writer, but often stop going to the cinema or reading scripts, stuff that would probably help my writing.

I sometimes don't want to cut back on any projects as I feel this will make me less worthy, lazy even. After reading this book, however, I think I take on so many projects to avoid finishing any of them, giving me the chance to slate myself and devoid myself of worth. It's fear that drives me, fear I won't become a successful writer unless I push myself. This is a problem also outlined in the book. In striving to be a great writer, I stop myself from becoming a writer at all.

I'll give an example. Earlier this year I had a conversation with my cousin, and after which revived an old blog and finally got round to setting this one up, something I've put off for a while. This was a positive step, but soon I became anxious. "How will I keep the deadlines?" I wondered, fearing that if I didn't, I'd seem a hack, not a real blogger at all. Before long, the blog posts were suffering, partly because I was doing too much, but also because I told myself I had to blog, or die.

I realised my mistake after reading the workaholic section. It's far better for me to firstly focus on a few projects to ensure I don't put myself under too much pressure. Secondly, I need to make sure I'm writing not because I fear I have to succeed in my goal, but because I want to, and have something to say. Right now I'm logged in not out of fear, but because I'm quite excited to share this revelation.

It seems a case of balance. We can and should put in time to reach our creative goals, but should be aware of piling our plates too high, and make sure we're writing for the right reasons: is it a need to succeed in our careers, or simply because today we want to write?

Breakdown of The Polar Bears

I never thought I'd actually get excited over a short film created by Coca-Cola. That's right. Coca-Cola, the movie. It's based on the polar bears used in their advertising, but thankfully there's not a Coke bottle in sight. In fact, it's not half bad, and I found myself strangely moved by the end. I've always found animation to have really well-crafted stories, and this one's no different.




I wanted to find out how this little sucker got me so involved, and broke it down into my interpretation. You might recognize some of the headings from Blake Snyders, Save the Cat. I'm not Cat obsessed or anything, but do like using the headings to describe plot points. I'd love any comments, things I've missed, gotten wrong, or you could just call me a sap for being a little obsessed with this film. It's just advertising after all, or is it something new?

·        Hero and Central Character: Jack

o   Weakness: Aloof, unreliable

o   Want: To climb the ice tower

o   Need: For Daddy Bear and family to accept and understand him

·         Protagonist: Daddy Bear

o   Weakness; Rule-follower, strict, rigid

o   Want: To give an acceptance speech to become pack leader

o   Need: To be closer to his son, Jack

·         Sub-plot Character: Kia

o   Need: Independence, live a little, have some fun

·         Antagonist: Zuk

·         Ally: Mummy Bear

Ordinary World/Weakness

The Polar Bears opens by establishing Daddy Bear’s goal to give an acceptance speech to become pack leader. He emphasises how responsible and organised polar bears are, so that when Jack stumbles out of no-where and admits to having followed the wrong pack for hours, we understand he doesn’t fit in. This establishes Jack's need, to be understood by his dad, and shows us his weakness; he is an aloof and irresponsible bear who knows how to enjoy himself. Mummy bear states the theme when she advises Jack to be himself to gain his father’s respect.

Inciting Incident/Point of Attack

I’d say it already happened, that it’s the Dad’s speech (or at least when he was asked to give it), as this seems to be the central event the story hangs from. This is quite a big step for the family and I imagine has shaken things up, and now Jack is going to have to deal with being an aloof bear in a family of leader bears. This is why I think Daddy is the protagonist. Being made leader of the pack seems to be his goal, and he can achieve this by delivering a great speech to the other bears.

Break-into-two

The speech sets up the stakes for the story. Mummy suggests Jack look after Kia, and Daddy says he doesn’t want any surprises on this day, simple code for, let’s mess it up any which way we can. We also have a double-cross, as mummy tells Zuk to watch Jack and make sure he doesn’t mess up. This sets up a central task for Jack, but it is not a goal; this is attributed to Daddy bear. I think Jack is the hero, as he later helps Daddy bear change, and is perhaps why he doesn’t have a concrete goal. Two female bears also set-up the dislike of puffins, are apprehensive to Jack, but seem to love Zuk.

Fun and Games

So it sort of feels that now we’re in the second act, as Daddy is off giving his speech whilst Jack is expected to look after his little sister. We do, however, get a second sort of break-into-two beat when Jack listens to his father’s speech and is inspired by the phrase, “scale new heights,” to literally want to scale an ice-tower that just happens to loom over the speech, sending our expectations wild.

I think this could be called plot point one, if you will, as this is the point when Jack begins his quest that winds up getting him in trouble. We set-up the story, and now it’s about to kick-start. This could be seen as a way to give a goal to our hero and central character. He wants to climb the tower in order to gain his father’s respect, taking action to achieve his need, not a material want. Again, Daddy Bear fits the traditional protagonist shape of wanting a material goal, the speech to become leader, and must later sacrifice this for a spiritual need, to be closer to his son.

B-Story

This is also the point when a second story, the B-story, is created. Jack leaves Kia on her own to scale the tower, which is understandable, as he’s an aloof, irresponsible bear. Zuk follows his mother’s instructions and sets off to stop Jack, leaving Kia to the temptation of the puffins. It’s quite nice that Kia has her own problems. We understand that she’s looking for a bit of independence and fun, and is fed up of being baby-sat all the time. Off she goes with the puffins, leaving us to wonder what dangers this little adventure might get her into, especially as they are not socially acceptable. It’s a nice mirror to Jack’s story, as he also isn’t accepted by society, and this later helps resolve the story.

Mid-point

Jack reaches the top of the ice-tower and literally is on-top of the world. This is certainly a quest to achieve his need, as he asks Zuk, who comes to stop him, if he thinks Dad would name the tower after him if he were the first one to slide down it. Jack pushes Zuk and follows after, immediately raising the stakes as we cut between the incoming bears and the father’s acceptance speech.

All is lost

Jack and Zuk gate-crash the acceptance speech and do just what Daddy Bear feared Jack would do. It gets worse when they discover that as a result of their little quest, that Kia has been lured into a silly dance with the puffins. The crowd start to gossip and it looks like Jack is in a whirlwind of trouble.

Break-into-three

But, perhaps listening to his mother’s advice from earlier (you could almost imagine a tacky flashback scene or voice-over) Jack dives into the pool and joins in with the dance. Daddy Bear is now faced with the dilemma of how to fix this little struggle. Does he disband his son and side with the pack, or does he damn the rules and join his son?

Climax

Daddy stands on his hind legs and brings a stop to the chaos. We’re not sure for a moment what he’s going to do, but then he dives on in, and after another beat of indecision, joins in with the dance. This is the point where Daddy chooses to abandon his want. We’re still not sure by the end of the film if Daddy will still be leader after his little stunt, but we do know he’ll be closer to his son. It sort of feels like a world change film, as the central character doesn’t change, but the world does to accommodate him. It is, however, quite standard, as Daddy Bear, our protagonist, has definitely changed.

New Equilibrium

The whole family join in the dance in the pool, with Mummy literally turning against the pack after a snide comment about her family. We then see the two females from earlier, who now seem to be in love with Jack for being himself. This is a little over the top, a bit like spoon feeding us the theme. “We get it already!” I want to scream, as we’ve already seen this in action, and don’t need it again.

So what can we get from this short film? The key thing for me is seeing a story work with several characters in conflict. In his book, On Film-Making, Alexander Mackendrick talks about characters in a web of conflict as opposed to a single main character with lots of side characters. Jack is the central character and hero, I’d say, as it’s him who saves the day and helps his father change, but without the conflicts from the characters around him, I’m not sure the story would work as smoothly. It’s nice to have a hierarchy. Zuk is above Jack when he attempts to stop him, working on higher orders from Mummy, but is still below Daddy, and it’s fun when he gets in equal trouble later.

I also like seeing the function of the B-story so clearly. At the end of the second act, the B-story and the A-story converge, and both are connected. Kia is dancing with puffins as a result of Jack climbing the ice tower. It’s also a mirror to Jack, as now Kia is being viewed as a misunderstood outcast breaking the taboos of society. The B-story is also what helps resolve the A-story. Jack is able to side with Kia, saving her from humiliation, and giving Daddy a choice to either side with society or his family. Instead of viewing this as a main story and a subplot, we can view it as two very important strands of the same story, which come together at the end to resolve each other. Without the B-story, Jack would simply be in a lot of trouble. It would probably make a good opening to a feature film. It seems that the B-story makes the difference between a fun scene and a complete story.

You could view the two stories like this;

A.      An aloof bear climbs an ice tower to gain his dad’s respect during the middle of his important acceptance speech.

B.      A bored younger-sibling is left alone when her brother goes to bring his aloof sibling in line, and is lured into a silly dance with outcast puffins.

Notice how the A story sounds a bit like a premise.

·       

The Spire - Review

I saw this play with writers from Out of Joint Writer's Academy, and found it interesting as it looks and feels very much like a movie. It captured me so much that I wrote a review, which you can read here

http://www.yuppee.com/2012/12/27/the-spire-review/

Out of Joint Writer’s Academy: Last but not least

I’ve been attending classes at Salisbury Playhouse about how to write for the stage. It’s been great fun, developing familiar story techniques, whilst introducing concepts alien to film, like how to use intervals. In our final class before Christmas, we read through scenes our class had written, with Max Stafford Clark directing.

I must admit I had no clue who Max was until a bit of goggling after the session. I could tell he was a professional with years of experience under his belt. He had a set of playing cards which he used to give actors directions, such as how much characters expressed their hated of each other out of ten. His techniques helped actors improvise off the scripts, and with this example, forced two characters meeting to discuss a lover in common, to say amiable lines with an air of pure dislike. The subtext became extra juicy.

Max has directed many plays, such as Our Country’s Good by Timberlake Wertenbake, and going by his bio page on the Out-of-Joint website (his own touring company) he’s helped new writers get plays on the stage. 

This session certainly gave our writers sweaty palms. It was the first time many of us had heard each others plays, and the material was very interesting. One of my favorite pieces, simply for the fun we had reading it, felt like a student film, with a stoner and his geeky friend discovering a pigeon in the middle of their kitchen table.

After the first read, Max  established rules for a second reading. The stoner would have to laugh at various points, and the geek would have to cry. The results were fascinating. As the two characters debated what to do with the feathered carcass, they suddenly became two very different people. The stoner became laid back, carefree and fun, whilst the geek became distraught and anxious about who delivered the morbid gift. The conflict maximized as the two characters had a distinct point of view. All from a little bit of laughter, and a few tears.

I’m not saying the scene worked better due to the actors or the director alone, the lines and the conflict were already established on the page. What Max did, was emphasise the conflict already within the scene. This shows how pushing characters to their extremes can really make your scene sing, and perhaps if the writer rewrites with this in mind, can enhance the script and dialogue without Max’s directions. 

The scenes all had something in common, something I’ve been grappling with for a while. The scenes were all character driven. Before, I’ve struggled to understand this, and instead of developing character, have created more twists, reveals and external conflicts to prevent a character reaching a goal. My scenes have been plot heavy (not that plot is a bad thing, I'm just trying to work out how to write a scene with more focus on character, mainly because for me it's uncharted territory).

What these scripts all cleverly did, was establish two distinct characters from two different points of view, a wife and an ex-wife of the same man, a laid-back stoner and his anxious friend, and set-up a single plot point, the wife and ex-wife meet before the man arrives, the stoner and his friend discover a pigeon. And that’s all. The rest of the scene explored the implications of the plot point. Will the two women stay civil, or both turn against the husband? What will the two friends do with the pigeon, and will this instability affect their relationship? All the comedy, and all the subtext came out of the interaction between the two characters, and relied solely upon one incident to drive the scene. 

At least, that’s how I viewed the scripts. I think if anything, these classes have opened my eyes to new ways of storytelling, and perhaps now when I rewrite my scene for Max to read in February, I can make something just as entertaining as all the other writers who read today.

Signs; For Poetic Inspiration

It was already ten minutes past my appointment, and the magazines did little to soothe my bordem. I started my usual habit of reading signs. Not the spiritual sort (though I do read my stars) but anything with a bit of text, such as, "Wet-Paint," information on general check-ups, jabs, and one particularity interesting one, "Patient Confidentiality." It got me thinking, and soon I was off on a random poetic tangent about zombies waiting for their health care...

Patient confidentiality

We promise we won’t tell

Even if your leg falls off

And freezes over hell

For equal rights the zombies have

To place a check-up call

It’s not as if chronic fatigue

Has never struck us all

They wait in line to place their vote

And choose the wiser bet

It must be all the brains they eat

To pass their IQ tests

For when the world does shortly end

They’ll be left standing tall

Embracing life in grotesque haste

Much stronger than us all

What's this all about?

The title of this blog was offered to me by a friend in University. I imagine a virtual garden with a virtual me sneaking away to the potting shed for a few hours writing. That's basically what this blog is for. A chance to share my creative ramblings as I continue on my quest to make it as a writer.

I've written reams of poems and lyrics, which I attempt to sing at open mic nights, a few short films, two features, and a couple of travel blogs and articles for yuppee.com.

I'll share my inspiration and thoughts on films I've enjoyed, as well as the trials and tribulations on the way to reach my goal of free-lance writer, poet, commissioned screenwriter and perhaps even playwright.

Who knows, I might even end up somewhere unexpected.