Needing a blank slate July 21, 2008
Posted by rgoodchild in novel, writing process.Tags: canvas, creatvity, planning, plot, writing, writing process
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I was talking to a good friend tonight about the need for structure in creativity. He was talking about a creative he knows who can’t work with a blank slate.
I completely understood the process. I like writing to a brief. I like a plan, a diagram,a few sentences even of expectation.
I need to have a starting point. At university I couldn’t write an essay until I had read someone else’s. Not because I wanted to copy theirs, but because reading theirs gave me a framework to work my ideas around.
I don’t need someone else’s essay anymore, but I do need a sentence.
Even my novel is based around a list of sentences I add to every now and again.
A blank canvas is terrifying. One with a mark on it less so, one with a simple sketch on it, easy to follow.
This is an important thing to remember if you are a teacher. Many children- even young ones, function best with a starting point. Some children do not like to have a blank start to everything they do. Catering to a child’s needs sometimes means you need to start the ball rolling to really see what they can do.
Lots of painters can’t work onto a blank canvas – even if all they do is slap a colour all over it first they have to have something on there before beginning. I can’t work in a tidy room or on a tidy desk, it makes me nervous!
ahh the tidy desk syndrome
)
me neither (that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it
Tehehe, then you would feel inspired in my office Rachel
. Always run out of floor.
My projects start with a desire, this comes together as a pile of scribbled ideas and end up with people living, working and dreaming from within. What starts with a chaotic pile of doodles, scrawled impressions, photocopied pages from urbis, home and garden and newspaper clippings, I present in a tidy accessible, cross reference-able form
One day…when I have lots of time…I would love to work in a minimalist space.
L