Reading Update #2: Bold, Brash and Brave
Finished reading part one of Perennial Seller, The Creative Process.
Kept up with my nightly routine of reading thirty minutes before bed and am publishing this blog on a Wednesday. Winning.
The rest of part one focused on the answers to the three vital questions, Who is this thing for?, What is the purpose of this thing? and Is it the best thing you can do?
The following are quotes from the book that provide an answer to these questions.
Who is this thing for?
“Picking a lane isn’t limiting. It’s the first act of empowerment we take as a creator. Recently Charlie Rose asked Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the blockbuster musical Hamilton, what set him apart from some of the smarter, more talented kids he had gone to school with. Miranda answered: “‘Cause I picked a lane and I started running ahead of everybody else… I was like, ‘All right, THIS” (p.45)
“Kurt Vonnegut joked that you have to “write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.” (p.47)
“You are unlikely to hit a target you haven’t aimed for. Hope is not helpful here; having something and someone to measure against is.” (p.47)
What is the purpose of this thing?
“Jerry Jenkins, creator of the Left Behind series, has said that regardless of what we make or what we make is about, our work must “always be for the purpose of something’”(p.48)
“It’s better to be focused on those two timeless use cases of enjoyability or utility.” (p.49)
“As Albert Brooks put it, “The subject of dying and getting old never gets old.’”
Is it the best thing you can do?
“Srinivas Rao, a writer and podcaster, put it well: “Only is better than best.’”
The Nigerian writer Chigozie Obioma has talked about the importance of audaciousness in making something that lasts. “Writers should realize,” he said, “that the novels that are remembered, that become monuments, would in fact be those which err on the part of audacious prose, which occasionally allow excess rather than those which package a story-now matter how affecting-in inadequate prose.”
“There is always more you can do, more you can add. We talked earlier about the importance of thinking big picture, but we must also think small—as in focusing on the tiniest parts of the process and doing them well.”
I believe the thing we create is a part of a balancing act. A constant balance between being bold, brash and brave.
Bold enough to push the boundaries of the well studied niche.
Brash to an extent, because creating a thing that is disrespectful to the rules of society can be consequential.
Brave in believing that there is value in creating art in only the way you create.
In my creative journey, I don’t believe I can be bold in testing the boundaries of the niche(s) I belong to because I have too many interests and not sure how to combine them or which one to commit to.
