Writer’s block has an an equally destructive brother. It’s one thing when you can’t think of anything to write. It’s another when you over write something. Take a perfectly good piece, then add and revise till whatever gem of an idea you had is covered and distorted by the inability to let something go. It’s like taking a perfect piece of rib eye steak and seasoning to the point where you can’t taste the meat. Overwriting something can be as destructive as anything else for a writer. There are a few explanations for this. One is insecurity. Myself, or any other writer, doesn’t trust that the piece is good enough as is, and feels the need to pad with more “brilliance,” even when nothing is required. Another, perhaps related, cause is a lack of perspective. The writer can no longer see what is in front of them clearly, and can’t tell that the piece is good because they’ve become so inured to the piece.
For some advice on the matter, I turn to Eddie Van Halen.
To people who dismiss Van Halen as just mindless party rock, I would say that being creative is being creative, no matter what you’re doing. their goals may be to just have a fun time, but they also know what they’re doing. Yes, Van Halen’s music lacks ambition. Perhaps the one facet which keeps Van Halen one notch below the rock greats, such as Led Zeppelin and Queen and the Who, is that Van Halen never tried anything to take the music to the next level. There was no ambitious concept album with multiple movements. No experimentation or fusion of folk music. No epic songs that ran over five minutes. But you can’t ignore the craftsmanship. It’s just dessert, but dessert on the same level as Jack Torres or Bouchon Bakery.
I read an interview with Eddie Van Halen. Aside from talking about playing guitar and why his current lead singer is way better than his previous singer (alternate David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar, ignore Gary Cherone if you ever remember him) he actually talked about his creative process. He said there are three basic steps; inspiration, creation and release. I don’t remember if he used the first two words specifically. But I do remember the equivalent meaning, as getting the idea, setting it down on tape and refining what you have. What struck me was the final phase, the release. He said it was an important step, and one that he only recently began to appreciate.
It was odd to hear the California Guitar God talk about the creative process so seriously.
Anyway, what struck me about Eddie’s interview was the idea of release. Letting go of an idea as a means of writing a song. Unfortunately, the interviewer seemed more interested in asking questions about what strings EVH uses and his sspeaker preference than futhering queries about hte mysterious creative process. EVH does emphasize the importance of release. Maybe someday someone will ask him to clarify. His statement also reminded me of an Indian proverb someone once told me, “All creativity comes from forgetting.”
Letting go can be a mysterious but powerful tool. It may explain why I never see a typo in my blog until I’ve published it. Or why I seem to get my best ideas when I’m not at the desk writing. Somtimes, the idea will hit as soon as I get up from the computer to grab a root beer. Why does it happen this way? Who knows.
I do know that I’ve been plugging away for months writing Don Quixote at Tiananmen Square. Unlike other plays, I have a group of people interested in producing this one. I’m actually writing something with a production at the end. So that means a deadline. Which means that I can’t write a few pages, go away, come back days later and pick up where I left off. It’s been a constant writing process.
After finishing the second draft, I did walk away from the piece, very purposefully. I felt as if every time I read it I couldn’t even see it anymore. My brain had just burnt out on writing something that had anything to do with Don Quixote or the Tiananmen Square massacre.
So I spent about a month not writing any plays. I did write, and have done some work for the good people at infinite-ammo.net. Then I got a call from my director, Melissa, asking to have some meetings about the play and where everyone was going. So I picked up the play again . . . more accurately, I looked around the living room and finally found the play . . . and read it. And the interesting thing is, things about hte play became glaringly obvious. A lot of it I liked. But there were some sections where I said to myself, “Why the hell did I do that?” It was like waking up sober after a night of partying and seeing the mattress crammed into the shower. What was I thinking, and what God forsaken moment of inspiration make this seem like a good idea?
Anyway, letting go. Forgetting. Putting some distance away from a piece. Hard work is good and all, but sometimes you have to go out and play. And when you play, there’s nothing better soundtrack than Van Halen.
dannyboyone 