Tasting the Imagination
What tickles my brain to create...
A couple of days ago, I posted a poem based on a prompt from Valeria Eden. In case you haven’t seen it, I’ll link it below:
Now, for me to create these pieces, stuff has to line up just right. I’ll detail the process that occurs when I create a piece of fiction (which, to some extent, also applies to non-fiction pieces).
Idea Synthesis and “Plucking”
The first part of the creative process is to come up with some ideas, and then select one of them. After all, you can’t exactly create without having one, right?
My brain both likes this, but also hates this. Why is that the case?
Let’s tackle the positive aspect first. Coming up with ideas is quite easy - this is due to the fact that I tend to process more information than a neuronormative person, even while at rest1. As such I am bound to make more connections between two things, which I can relay later when I go to the actual creation phase.
However, this comes at a cost. Since I process more information than the average person, I have more information and ideas to sift through. This can be quite overwhelming, as the following question then rolls into my head: “I have so many things I could write about! Which one am I going to dedicate some time to?” One of the struggles I have is with making executive decisions, and so choosing a topic to write about can be tiring in itself2. Even after I have decided on an idea to write about, I still have the rest of the “rejected” ideas floating around, taking up space, waiting to be written about (or not!)3.
There is also the issue of abstractness. Some ideas are rooted in experience or research - this makes writing non-fiction or proposals a bit easier, as I can use what I know or do further research to build a good article for you to read. Others might not be rooted in experience, but they still deal with the world we live in. A good example of this are the flight plans I generate to fly in Flight Simulator. My brain can use a map to generate a route that is exciting for me to fly in the simulator.
With fiction it can be harder. In fiction, I don’t necessarily have ‘landmarks’ to follow, nor a set structure. I have to develop those myself. You can see this reflected in my fiction and poetry writing - I will try to use literacy devices to try to ground myself in the world I’m creating. Most often, imagery is used.
I tend to gravitate towards writing prompts to help combat the issue of idea synthesis and selection. These plant an idea into my head, which I can then process and develop a piece. I particularly like prompts that introduce some sort of constraint, or have a good bit of detail4; this introduces some structure that my brain craves and I can use this to form some ‘scaffolding’ that the story/poem lies on.
I’ve also recently began to make prompts of my own as a little exercise to improve my idea synthesis skills. In April and May of this year I created some poetry prompts for people to try out for themselves - mostly drawn from things I read or hear about.
Actually creating something
Once an idea sticks in my head and I have an environment that is amiable for my brain (someplace that is safe, relatively quiet and free from distractions that I can’t control and I have nothing else that needs to be done right away), it’s time to create.
When it comes to creating a story or poem, I try to just jump straight in without planning. I don’t tend to plan out stuff, unless it’s something larger like a novel. Even for really large projects the amount of planning tends to be minimal, as I keep most of my ideas in my head. This allows you to get a better idea of what I am thinking about in the moment.
As I previously mentioned, I like to try to ground myself in the world I am creating. So, the first thing I will do is describe it. I try not to be scant with details - I want to be unambigous with everything, even if this slows the dialogue a bit.5
Typically in conjunction with the initial world building (but not always!) I will introduce a character. These tend to be intentionally vague at first, especially in short prose pieces. In poetry, I am usually the character, although I could easily be interchanged with the person reading it.
Once the initial scene is done things will go a bit smoother as I have now built up the ‘scaffolding’ and I can see how to proceed further.
A little exercise for you
At the beginning I posted a poem called Nature’s Calm. This was based on the prompt “there is no difference between god and the color green” by Valeria Eden. I’d like for you to read it and try to visualize the world that my words create. Does the world that the poem creates seem real? Can we achieve this sort of harmony and peace in the real world?
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There is some scientific basis to this, see, for instance, this study from Galan and Velasquez.
A friend of mine quips that I am their “external” drive. This is true - I do carry a lot of information and ideas. When it comes to creative ventures though I imagine my brain being fragmented and I need to “defragment” it - unfortunately, this is harder than just running a program on a computer.
Pictures can be very useful for this. The concept of the Sound Empress novel came from an image.
This holds if I am not being held to a word/syllable count. When there are restrictions in these I have to be very careful to not ramble too much, and focus on advancing the story. As a result, word choice becomes critical.