Creativity: The Sequel
Greetings again to all of you Afro Stachers! Another Super Fabulous Frog Blog brings us together!
A little over a month ago, I started talking about creativity and leading a creative life. Of course, this was brought to you by Robert Rodriguez’s list of advice. I only touched on a few of his points and now I’d like to revisit that article and talk about a few more points he made.
Nothing ever goes according to plan.
This is so true! How many times have you planned something and things go awry? But I guess the thing to do is to adjust to what happens. Don’t let it get you down. When I was writing the issue of Black Pigeon’s story in Poverty Thrill Adventures, I had only planned it to be a one issue story. But as I kept writing, more ideas were coming to me, and a way to bring everything together was taking too long. Instead of editing it down to fit one issue, I decided to do a two part story. The same thing happened with the Superfluous Sleuth story as well, as I’m sure you’ll see when it comes out (hopefully soon)! I guess when you think about how nothing goes according to play, always be flexible and never sacrifice a good story just to make things fit.
Find the freedom in limitations.
OK, this sounds like it’s the opposite of the last point. I didn’t allow the limitation of one issue stop me from a story and made it two issues. But to me, the limitations of which are spoken of in the advice is your own limitations. As Robert Rodriguez probably has limitations in what he can do in his movies due to budgets, time constraints, stunts, etc., he has to be creative when figuring out what he is able to do to put what he wants on the screen. The cool thing about writing comic books, or writing anything for that matter, you don’t have to worry about limitations like that. The screen is in your mind and your budget to put it there is limited only by your own words. But writing is a skill. I don’t want to say not everyone can do it. I believe anyone can write and be creative. But it takes a whole lot of work and studying to be a really good writer. I can tell you, I’m not a good one, but I keep trying and learning. There is so much advice and knowledge out there on how to be a good writer. I know what I can do right now. The freedom is knowing that I will be able to do so much more later. I do the best I can do with what I am limited with.
Always keep learning, always keep trying.
Well, this piece of advice definitely goes with what I just talked about with limitations. As I said, writing is a skill. Anyone can learn how to do it. Sure, some people have a gift and can write extremely creative stories that draw people in from the beginning. I believe the same goes for being an artist as well. Sure, talent helps, but the dedication to keep learning and trying is what you really need to be great.
Being creative isn’t always easy. It takes work. It takes practice. It takes dedication. It’s easy to sit on your couch and watch television and let your mind go blank. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that. Everyone needs to escape the trials of the work day and just unwind. I get that. But once you start living a creative life, and I’m not talking about comic book creation, I’m talking about creativity in everything you do, life starts to get interesting. Even the mundane can become entertaining.
So I say, go out there and be creative. Do things differently than you normally would. You might just surprise yourself. And if you do that once, what more can you do?
That about it for me this week! Be good to each other!
