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How Paula Poundstone Found Her Process - Wednesday, March 21, 2007 |
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If you would like to watch my appearances on the TV show "Workopolis" - a wonderful show all about careers and work hosted by Bruce Sellery, please go to http://www.bnn.ca/articles/rob.tv/205/workopolis.html
You'll see a section that says "Workopolis TV Tool Kit". From there, you can either click "view all" under Careers and find my three segments (they're not in order but they're all there!) or you could also scroll down further until you see "Full Shows" and click on the shows of Feb 26, 27 and 28th to see my segments.
Creativity is not cut and dry. It is a process - a very personal process - of finding out how to access this part of yourself and create something unique and tangible in the real world.
Just because someone else did it one way, doesn't mean that it's the right way for you. The secret is learning what gets you to be creative - the setting, the subject, the timing, the motivation...uncover the secret (and honour it!) and you'll be able to create in flow.
My most recent great example of this is Paula Poundstone, a comedian I love. She said that she was trying to write a book about herself but she couldn't because she couldn't think of what to say about herself that people would care about, so she was stuck.
And then she also realized that she loves to talk, and can barely listen to people before she interjects to relate to them "Hey that's like something that happened to me...". She says that if Martin Luther King was to walk in her hotel room and say "I have a dream", before he'd gone any further she would have said, "That's so funny I had a dream too, about..." (insert stand up comic pause and face here).
Anyway, she realized that if she wrote about someone else she'd instantly start writing about herself, hence she began a book about Abraham Lincoln and finally started writing her memoir. And that's what worked. For her autobiography, she researched a series of heroic historical figures and then in writing about them, jumped off into writing about her. (Her following joke on Joan of Arc is the tipper of the punchline, but I won't try it on paper - Paula P. is all about delivery).
And you know what? I can't wait to read that book! It's such a unique take on the typical celebrity autobiography.
What a creative way to get unstuck. It made me wonder, how can I use that story to help boost the way I get creative or do something new and scary in way that works for me?
So how about it? Is there something you have to do that you're not doing because you feel stuck? How could you utilize something that you're already good at that would make doing this new thing easier?
p.s. Word on the street is that Veronica Mars has been cancelled. It's a sad day. Long live Rob Thomas and may he create other wonderful series. Shout out to Veronica and Keith Mars for the best Father/Daughter relationship on television. The first season was a dream season people - rent the DVD and see what I'm talking about.
p.p.s. There's also word on the street that Friday Night Lights will live on another season. Hooray! Cheers to the best Mother/Daughter relationship on television and one of the best shows EVER. Why aren't you watching? |
