On Creativity, Continued: Execution

By Jonny Walls

I've spent the last thirteen years in pursuit of a career in creativity. In high school and a few years beyond, it was music. For the last six years, it's been film.

On Wednesday, Emily posted an incredibly insightful piece about the importance of creativity. Creativity, she argues, belongs to everyone, even those, like herself, who grew up erroneously believing themselves uncreative. An important tenet of Emily's thesis is that creativity is often undervalued, sometimes to a startling degree, in our modern mindsets. I agree, and so propose we keep the creativity train rolling through the weekend.

Now What?

So you're fresh off Emily's rousing call to creative arms and have found your mind flooded with fresh ideas and memories of youthful schemes that went ever undone. You've discovered a new spring in your step that you forgot ever existed. You're floating on the winds of hope and rediscovered wonder.

Well I'm here to bring you back down.

Creativity isn't all excitement, fleeting images, and wild experimentation; it requires application as well. It's not enough to rediscover the slumbering bear of creativity hibernating in the wintery cave of our subconscious; we must brave the beast and wake it. (A decidedly uncreative analogy, yes, but deliciously ironic. Am I right?)

I've by no means been a paragon of creative success and innovation, but I have figured a few things out along the way.

Hold on there, Jackson...

Let's dispel a popular myth that creativity and organization are somehow dichotomous. Somewhere floating around is the notion that creatives are all free-spirited, wind riding forest sprites who could no more condescend to bother with good grammar than they could tidy their work spaces (not that they could ever be contained by any such conformist cubicles of oppression anyway.) Granted, every mind works differently, but it has been my discovery that organization is not only in harmony with creativity, it is a distinct aid unto it.

For me, anything from a messy work space to haphazard digital file management can act as a creativity suppressant. Even if only on a subconscious level, clutter is just one more thing to preoccupy our mind-power and weigh our creativity down. If I'm editing a film, I shouldn't be wondering where, out of five possible locations, one particular root file may be. I want to dedicate my concentration to the flow of the story and the rhythm of the piece. Knowing that every file is safe and cozy where it ought to be is downright liberating. Clear out the clutter, overthrow disorganization, and watch your creativity blossom, unhindered.

It's All Been Said More Effectively Before

In the last two years, not including all of my paying work, I have edited a now published book, co-written a travel memoir exceeding 100,000 words (three drafts), written a feature length screenplay (eight drafts), written twenty-seven blog entries, collaborated on a friend's graphic novel, performed all parts for and recorded a song, performed drums and contributed to arrangements for a friend's music project, written, directed and edited a short film, written three short stories, worked on numerous friends' projects and short films, am currently writing another feature length screenplay, am currently collaborating on a web series, and am in pre-production for another short film I wrote and will direct.

Oh, and I made a board game.

Yes, landing on Waffle House right out of the gate does earn you an extra turn.

Please understand, I'm not trying to impress you. (What a sad attempt it would be.) What I mean to point out is, I could have done more. I should have done more. I spent a lot of the last two years sitting on my ass, browsing the internet and wasting time. I spent more time staring at Facebook and espn.com than I did on all of those projects combined. Imagine what I may have accomplished if I had cut my wasted time in half.

I'm not the busiest person in the western hemisphere. There were times (extended times) when business was slow. But even when I was working every day, I would find time to get my own creative work done. If you are serious about uncorking your creativity, you have no excuses. You must sit down, clench your teeth, and do something. Talk can be good. It can help you organize your ideas, to flesh them out, but it only takes you a fraction of the way. We need tangible results here, people. Get it done. Write that story. Go to the store, buy the materials, clean out the garage, and start painting. Find someone with a camera and a Mac and shoot that short film. Do it.

Collaboration is Key

When I was slogging through a drastic revamp of my screenplay a few weeks ago, I hit a brick wall. I couldn't get through a certain obstacle, no matter how I tried. I wracked my brain and spent days, literally, in misery. Finally I called a friend. He already knew the basic story, so I talked him through the specific points of my issue, and he started throwing around ideas, and then I started throwing around ideas based on his ideas, and then new ideas were born out of a seed that his ideas planted in my mind, and then he began sprouting new ideas based on my new ideas, and then two of our ideas collided in mid-air and showered sparks and caught the couch on fire, and the next thing I knew I was picking ideas like fruit off of a tree (and treating my idea-burns). It was like a laser bouncing back and forth between two mirrors, gaining intensity by the moment. (I have no idea if that actually works.)

When I finish a screenplay, a story, a rough cut, anything, I don't pat myself on the back and congratulate myself on a job done. I send it to every willing person I know. I sit down with a group of seven or eight friends and read through my screenplays aloud. I let people watch rough cuts and hope they'll catch any awkward cuts that eluded my tired eyes. I tell them that I appreciate their praise, but what I really want is the criticism. There is simply no way to squeeze every bit of juice out of an idea with one pair of hands alone. A second pair will come in from a different angle and hit a fresh patch of that same fruit that you didn't even know was there.

You don't have to keep every idea. I certainly don't. Remember, it's your vision that in the end must be accomplished. Sometimes the ideas I'm given go straight in the trash. Sometimes they lead to separate ideas I keep. Sometimes I take the ideas outright and claim them as my own (the true secret to creative success), but I am always, always, better for it. Collaboration is the anvil upon which any and all singular visions can be molded to size and made perfect. No exceptions.

In Summary...

Creativity is part inspiration, part execution. As Emily pointed out, sometimes the inspiration bit is cast aside before it even has a chance to take root. But just as often, the seeds of inspiration are planted and left untended. Creativity doesn't just happen. While geniuses like Steinbeck and Wes Anderson and Van Gogh and Thom Yorke tend to make it seem effortless, it's an illusion. It's anything but.

Now go. Wake the bear.

By Jonny Walls