nemorathwald (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nemorathwald) wrote2005-07-18 11:59 am
nemorathwald) wrote2005-07-18 11:59 am
Entry tags:
How to Be Creative
Hugh McCloud has an interesting essay on how to be creative. A couple of good excerpts, which I have believed for years:
"If you’re looking at a blank piece of paper and nothing comes to you, then go do something else. Writer’s block is just a symptom of feeling like you have nothing to say, combined with the rather weird idea that you SHOULD feel the need to say something."
"The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not. Art suffers the moment other people start paying for it. The more you need the money, the more people will tell you what to do. The less control you will have. The more bullshit you will have to swallow. The less joy it will bring. Know this and plan accordingly."
"Early 30s is a great time to be alive- you're still young, but you have experience. A powerful combo. The downside is all that weird rockstar shit you believe about yourself is well past its sell-by date, and if you haven't outgrown it by then, it starts to fuck up your life."
"If you’re looking at a blank piece of paper and nothing comes to you, then go do something else. Writer’s block is just a symptom of feeling like you have nothing to say, combined with the rather weird idea that you SHOULD feel the need to say something."
"The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not. Art suffers the moment other people start paying for it. The more you need the money, the more people will tell you what to do. The less control you will have. The more bullshit you will have to swallow. The less joy it will bring. Know this and plan accordingly."
"Early 30s is a great time to be alive- you're still young, but you have experience. A powerful combo. The downside is all that weird rockstar shit you believe about yourself is well past its sell-by date, and if you haven't outgrown it by then, it starts to fuck up your life."
no subject
I have theories about why this is so, and they run kind of deep. CCS is, of course, reflective of the surrounding community. There is a rust belt tendency to worship industry, even as it flees for greener pastures leaving devastated communities behind. There is something of a mythology about industrial technology that actually stretches back centuries. If anything, rural people are actually more enraptured with industrial technology than are urban people.
Imagine yourself a farmer in Roman Gaul, AD 300 or thereabouts. The local Roman legion orders you to beat your plow into a pike and shield, take up arms, and defend the empire. To a peasant farmer, this is the adventure of a lifetime. After it is over, the farmer returns to his fields and tells tales of his exploits and how his simple technology saved the civilized world. Repeat this scenario over and over until you have tractors and tanks instead of plows and pikes. WWII was a boon to this kind of thinking, and Michigan was a central supplier (Willow Run, etc). Of course this has nothing to do with art or animation or filmmaking but the influence remains. If one is steeped in it, techno-rapture is seen as quite normal. I know this because I have been inside of it and managed to get out. Use technology for what it can offer, sure, but recognize that without creativity it will not save us.
no subject
My theory about why this was so, was that the Motor City (not being the Animation City) has countless companies that need animations of moving mechanical parts, and very few with a need for character or story animation, and they want their graduates to be able to get jobs. Until now I figured CSS wasn't even supposed to be otherwise.