3 great insights from Harold Shapero

30 June 2015 Unknown 0 Comments

image by latimes.com

Harold Shapero was an American composer born in the 1920s and whose hero was Beethoven. I read some of his writing in this book that I'm reading and it just blew me away.

Here's some of the most important things I got out of the 3 pages I read of his writing (just 3 pages and yes all this).

Practice the building blocks

He talks about breaking a musical piece down into its phrases and practicing creating and rearranging phrases over and over to learn the techniques and improve your craft. More importantly, he talked about daily practice.

"The importance of daily practice also cannot be overemphasized, for without it, the bridge established between the conscious and the creative unconscious by technical exercise is soon blocked by non-musical associations. Just as the function of daily ritual and prayer, as related to the intuitive realization of deity, is that of preserving the thread of connected thoughts which lead to the intuition itself, so the function of daily technical practice as related to musical composition, is that of maintaining free the inroad to that corner of the mind from which the music comes."

Copy the masters

He goes on to say that breaking music down into phrases and practicing those, and imitating the phrases that masters have used and trying to come up with similar ones yourself, will lead to your own flavor of the art. He says this will lead to the "personal materials of your own art" and that you will find where your passions differ from the ideas of the masters and where you can bring yourself into the art.

Law of Association of Ideas

He includes a story in Beethoven's own writing about how he dreamed a song while on a carriage ride, but that afterward he could not remember the tune. Later, when he was on a carriage ride to the same place he had a "waking dream" and suddenly remembered the tune he had dreamed or invented. He said that this is because of the "laws of association of ideas." Harold Shapero's comment to that was "the use of this phrase is indeed striking.

I don't know what those laws are, but I've heard a lot about creativity being the ability to associate two ideas that have no business being together to come up with a brand new idea. This sounds like it is the same thing but almost in reverse. In order to remember the brand new idea, put yourself back in the situation where you associated the ideas in the first place. Maybe?

Bonus: Inspiration in art

Here's a little bonus for you. Shapero finished with some great ideas about inspiration in art—all forms of art, but he specifically talked about musical art.

"It is evident that inspiration is a most vital component of art. … it is possible to consider inspiration the creative absolute. … The composer can be certain that something has gone wrong with his musical thinking when he loses his inspiration. The composer to whom inspiration is granted can be assured that he is drawing on the most significant creative forces which are available to him."

And there you have it. Drink deep the words of the masters. As always, go to the source because their words are more powerful than my summary of them.

Harold Shapero died in 2013, but I want to thank him for his inspiration and his words. They have touched me deeply, all in just 3 pages.

The Spirituality of Creativity

25 June 2015 Unknown 0 Comments

Today I'm going to mix in my moral compass a little bit with my ideas of creativity. I'm Christian and I believe that God created our world.

I want to talk about that. That act of creating the whole universe.

Imagine the sheer size of creating the universe. There are billions of galaxies. Each galaxy is billions of stars. Each star is many times larger than Earth. Earth is many times larger than me. Therefore, the universe is much much much larger than me.

Imagine the complexity of creating the universe. I'm pretty big compared to the ants I stepped on as a kid. Those ants are pretty big compared to the cells that make them up. Those cells are pretty big compared to the proteins that make them. Those proteins are pretty big compared to the atoms which make them. It just keeps going, all the way down to subatomic particles.

Long story short: the universe is huge and very complex. It's made up of tiny ity-bity pieces that make gigantic, massive things.

Artist AND Engineer

What's my point with this?

God had to understand at a very high level how big things like galaxies work, and at the same time he had to understand the most minute detail of how subatomic particles work. Creating the universe took a little bit of genius and a little bit of creativity. Okay, maybe "a little bit" is an understatement. God sounds to me like a brilliant architect, and if you look at nature's beauty, He also seems to be a very creative being, very artistic.

Creation

Though he has the ability to create the universe and we don't, we have something in common: we all have the ability to create. Creation seems to be in our nature.

We love creating. We strive all whole lives to create beautiful and meaningful things. Not everyone likes creating the same thing, but we all strive to create. Music, words, clay, business plans, buildings, families, software, chairs.

Creation is the ultimate act of creativity. Creation, and therefore creativity, is in our nature. It's who we are. The scale of creation doesn't matter, we are like God in that we create.

Happiness: The key to unlocking Creativity

23 June 2015 Mitchell 0 Comments

Hey, my name is Mitchell Ellis. I am Freelance Illustrator currently, but I have done work for start up businesses and even animation companies like Bento Box Entertainment. Most importantly, I have done work with Cameron for his stories (I Illustrated his book cover). Cameron inquired me about my own insights on creativity and being creative. So here is my attempt at unlocking the ever elusive concept of creativity! 




How do I come up with new ideas?

I don’t think I really come up with anything truly “new” as  far as an idea goes. But I do try to take things that are familiar and make them feel new. Lets goes ahead with an example to help extrapolate this idea. Let us start with any idea of something we feel like drawing “spaceship”. Now that we have a raw start, we need to start seasoning the idea with whatever interesting flavors we can come up with! So we have a space ship, we will give the space ship some sort of a purpose. I am fan of Star Wars and many of it’s “knock off” films, so we will make it a “Star Fighter”.

Now our raw idea has been developed into something with purpose and we are actually ready to begin being creative with the idea. I personally like to try to juxtapose words or phrases that you don’t usually see beside each other. Here is an example of what I am trying to say. African Safari Star Fighter, Barnyard Chicken Star Fighter, Mystical Unicorn Star Fighter, The combinations are endless, and the more strange ideas you try and combine, generally the more creative they become. It is also important to note, that allowing humor into these brainstorming sessions allows the ideas to flow more freely. Humor is essential to unlocking the “flow state” of creativity, the mindset where your creative ideas tend to pour out abundantly.

There are times that your first idea can be a really good one, but most of the time, there are better ideas that come later down the line. It is best to avoid the “safe first” idea that comes across your mind by pure luck!



What do I do when I’m faced with a blank page and nothing’s coming?

You aren’t always going to have creativity spewing from your brain through your fingertips. There will continuously be “bad idea garbage” and residue cluttering your mental roadways, especially if you have had a particularly good session the day before. We need a way to clean these pathways out, or rather beat the “suck” out of yourself! There are a few things that I do that can be helpful.

Sometimes I listen to some music that gets me really pumped, the type of music to listen to should be from an era that resonates well with you. I personally am a big fan of the 80’s, so I tend to listen to music that resembles that time. Music tends to put me in a good mood quickly, and it also allows my other senses to relax.

Another thing I tend to do is look through the work or ideas of professionals that I look up to. Since I paint I tend to look through an “Art of (insert awesome movie or artist here)” book. Seeing the way they solve problems and iterate ideas can really inspire me most of the time, and that tends to get my work rolling. I’d be careful with doing this though, because it is very easy to just copy their work instead of build off of their work! I consider this activity research in it’s most pleasurable form.

I’d say the most effective practice for me is sitting down and actually drawing. Drawing anything, even if it isn’t relevant! Make sure to have fun with the ideas as you work on them! This a great way to get yourself into the ever coveted “flow state”. 
I am basically saying, Happiness is key to creativity!


How do I get myself in the mood every day?

To be honest, I’m not always in the mood. It can be mentally draining to feel the pressure of creating on a daily basis. Finding ways to recharge your brain either at the beginning or end of a particularly creative day can help relieve this pressure. I tend to find activities that aren’t always art related, things that involve being out in a public place around other people. Human interaction is not only encouraging, but it is also rewarding. Sometimes sitting down on a bench in the mall is a great way to see new and interesting characters that can inspire you to create.

Recharging shouldn’t take too long, but it should ultimately allow you to relax your mind.

Another thing is setting goals for yourself. When you make yourself accountable for your work, you tend to be more motivated. What if you make a goal and not live up to it? Analyze yourself and the goal and figure out what went wrong. Self analysis is really a different topic though.


How do I decide if something is good enough?

I tend to just post it on some sort of social media tool and see if it generates traffic with my peers. I am never 100% happy with what I make, but I am usually at least 65% happy with it! I never really know if something is good enough, but I do try and see if what I am producing is matching up with my peers.



What have I done in my life to stay creative?

Visit museums, read books, play an occasional video game (just don’t let it rule your life), watch a movie, listen to stories, tell stories, walk through a forest, take a different route to school/work, find love, fall in love, play an instrument, involve yourself, give yourself worth and meaning!

Ultimately, I have chosen to be happy with my choices. Like I said before, Happiness is key to creativity!


If you are interested in learning more about me, be sure to visit my website www.theoriginalmitch.com. Through this site you can find anything "Me" related! I hope to hear from you all soon! Stay awesome, stay creative!

Creativity is excess

18 June 2015 Unknown 0 Comments

image by thegospelcoalition.org

I'm not very good at writing humor. In this next book I'm writing, I'm trying to have some humor, because let's face it Son of Shadow Hero of Light has none.

Looking back on how I wrote Son of Shadow Hero of Light, I realize that during my editing, I took out many things that initially I thought would be funny. We'll never know if they were actually funny, but I'm going to analyze why I took them out and learn something humor and relate that to creativity.

3 Reasons for removing humor

I took out funny things because upon reading them again, I felt they were too subtle and audiences wouldn't get them or appreciate them.

I took out funny things to save on word count because it wasn't moving forward the scene.

After removing some of the funny things while editing the first few chapters, I told myself that maybe this book didn't need to be funny. By the end, I had convinced myself that humor didn't fit with the tone of the story. I started hunting any remaining humor and removing it.

Why that was bad

Instead of trying to make the funny things work, I just took it out. Instead of trying to make them less subtle or testing them out on my wife or a friend to see if they were actually funny, I just resigned and removed them. I gave up and took the easy route of just not adding humor.

I changed the tone of the story or redefined it bit by bit until humor was gone. Instead of making an explicit choice about humor, I gradually edged myself out of humor and by the time I had really decided, I had removed most of the humor.

What I realized about humor and me

The second reason for removing humor that I listed above was about my own minimalistic tendencies. I'm a minimalist. I don't like waste and I don't like doing things or being part of things that don't drive toward a purpose. Just shooting the breeze or small talk or even playing pointless games are hard for me because there's just no point (except for when I'm hooked on a video game for a couple months … inconsistency in my personality much?). So if a word or sentence didn't move the scene forward, it was removed with prejudice.

Is humor possible within minimalism?

That's probably deeper than I want to go, but let's just say that because I tend toward minimalism, humor is harder for me and especially in writing.

But it made me realize that humor is excess. It takes more "unnecessary" words to make something funny. Probably not in every situation, but it feels like humor is like a layer on top of communication that just transfers information. Humor is an emotion on top of that information. Again, maybe deeper than I should go.

Innovation is excess

But it makes me think that maybe innovation is also excess. Innovating on top of just doing day-to-day stuff takes more "unnecessary" energy than just doing the day-to-day stuff.

It's kind of like education. It takes way more energy to teach the new generation than it would be to just keep that learning locked away. Education is excess, but so necessary. And so is innovation. Without innovation and without education, our lives would be no better than cavemen's. Because of expending so much extra and "unnecessary" energy, our world has improved in so many ways you can't begin to describe.

So it takes more to be funny and more to be innovative. More energy, more effort, more work, more from you. It takes more of you to be funny. It takes more of you to be innovative.

You’re not as good a writer as you think you are

16 June 2015 Scott 0 Comments

“I aspire to someday write a book half as good as any of [Guy Gavriel Kay’s]. The man's a genius."
-Brandon Sanderson

 “Wanting to write like Tolkien would have been, for me, like wanting to blossom like a cherry tree or climb a tree like a squirrel or rain like a thunderstorm [e.g. impossible].”
-Neil Gaiman 

The first several sentences of the novel clearly communicate at least one of the following: an unanswered question, a dramatic and vivid scene, an intriguing logical disconnect, a strong character voice, or a promise of interesting action to come. 

Some conflict or unanswered question is introduced and resolved within each scene, giving each scene a satisfying sense of closure.

The characters thoughts reflect their circumstances and seem appropriate given the time and place.

The dialogue reveals the character's personality without forcing the character to spell it out explicitly.

A beginner's mind

11 June 2015 Unknown 0 Comments

I really love TED talks. Here's another really great one from Liz Wiseman about why we should never grow up.

Walt Disney said:

"Too many people grow up. That's the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up. They forget. They don't remember what it's like to be twelve years old."

Some great quotes:

"I just slowed down and played."

"How does what we know, get in the way of what we don't know."

"Once we know [a pattern] we can be blind to other possibilities. We stop asking 'why' and we just do ….we don't let ourselves make mistakes or fail."

"In the process of discovering, we tend to do our best thinking"

"It's not what you know, it's how fast you can learn."

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who can't read and write. It will be those who can't learn, un-learn, and then re-learn.

Children are curious, unpretentious, playful. It's about a choice.

1. Ask more questions
2. Seek novelty
3. Play more

"Perhaps the way to handle our big grown-up problems is to think more like a kid."

"Let's not grow up all the way."

So what?

Daily accountability

09 June 2015 Unknown 0 Comments

This week my family started doing daily standup meetings. It's a meeting we do everyday at work that lasts for 15 minutes where we all stand up and go around the circle saying what we did the day before and what we'll do today.

We're just trying it as an experiment in the family. We're going to try to find a time every day where I can take 15 minutes from work and do a video chat with them. I think it'll be great to connect with my wife and kids before I get home every day.

I've mentioned that we are homeschooling and I think adding a little accountability to learning and creativity is healthy. We'll see how it actually goes, but I'm thinking it will be positive for us.

I would also advocate doing something similar with my writing group. I think one of the main purposes of a writing group is the accountability to each other. If we were able to have a more formal and more consistent cadence of telling each other what we're up to and what we plan to do, it would help.

Hopefully hearing about my experiments doesn't bore you. I don't know if any of them are useful or will help anyone but me, but I believe strongly in experimenting and I hope this gives you a view into how you can do it in your own life. It's powerful. Do it!

How do you experiment to make your life better?

You aren't arguing with yourself enough

04 June 2015 Unknown 0 Comments

I read some advice by Zach Holman in this AMA type github post and later on his blog about keeping a journal. The journaling idea was nothing new. But there were two things that stood out to me.

Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living"

Talk through decisions with yourself

Your job is draining your creativity

02 June 2015 Unknown 4 Comments

image by northernheckler.wordpress.com

So last week was a bad week at work. I had some long, stressful days most of the week because we were putting out a big fire.

We got it done in time and our team looked awesome, but I didn't get any writing done at home pretty much the whole week. I couldn't write here on the blog the whole week either. What's worse is that this week I still don't feel like being creative, nor can I come up with any ideas for blog posts. (And that's why you're getting this crappy article instead of something with more meat)

Creativity is a finite resource

But what last week and this week helped me realize is that you don't have an infinite amount of creativity. Just like they're discovering with will power, creativity is finite.

Long, stressful hours at work deplete your resources and it takes a while to recharge. Hopefully by next week I'll be back in action.

What kinds of things deplete your creativity and what do you do to recharge? (No seriously, plz help me recharge)