I think it hinges on the environment,
It's interesting, when I left school I had such aspirations for myself. To attend to all of those little creative projects that I never had time or energy to do while I was in university.
Once I got out though, it was another story. I was all work, all day, every day. When I wasn't at work I was busy running all over the city spending time with people. While none of this has changed, it's only now that I've returned to school that I feel the creative energies flowing again.
Absent Minded Man is a prime example of this. I hadn't touched this writing space in ages, but being on campus and in lectures...sitting through tutorials and films...
Well, here I am. It's gotta mean something.
Proximity to an environment that dictates that you think, that you write, and you consider and appreciate. It's a nice feeling to want to work on my own creative en-devours enough that I actually follow through.
I'm taking a serious interest in re-reading the old narratives I was working on last year. There were directional issues for sure. I know how heavily influenced I am by the work of whichever author I'm currently reading too. I see it when I look back at what I've written in the past.
What does everyone always say? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
But to appreciate the work of another, and to go the distance and create something new...well those are much different things.
So while I'm considering revising old pieces there is also the chance that I simply start a new narrative. Tell a new story.
I have some ideas, some characters I've cooked up. Not sure what I can do to bring them to the page. I'm scared that I'm wasting perfectly good characters before I know what the hell I'm doing. Don't want to try and breath life into them and fall flat on my face, only to hang my head and walk away.
I mentioned a long time ago that perhaps I'd post some of my other work. I think that if the revision process goes then I may be able to tie up a few loose ends and post the short stories.
Depends entirely on my satisfaction with the end product. So we'll see.
Faithful Few, who am I without you?
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Good to hear from you again, and great to hear that you are writing again! It's funny how much work can stifle the creative parts of your brain; I often feel that it's hard to "take off the blinkers" after a week of work. There's such a focus demanded that is completely anathema to how my brain actually works...I want to be able to tear off on tangents, and follow stray thoughts and questions to a conclusion. Unfortunately, most work environments tend to limit the ability to pursue random concepts and impulses.
ReplyDeleteSchool is of course also nice in that it can really provide its own fuel; prepackaged ideas and theories sometimes fit nicely into spaces in our heads. I think it's harder in the non-academic world to find stuff that fits so easily. I mean, you might read a book and have a great spark of inspiration, but the difference between that growing into something or staying a spark seems to be whether all of your ideas and concepts to fall into place around it. Catching fire is a pretty clichéd metaphor, but I find it hard to escape when thinking about these kind of processes.
But alas, I ramble. (A lot.) I look forward to seeing what you come up with/are up to!