Five Bullets 6.14.24
Bradbury, Creativity, Suspense & more
Good Morning & Happy Friday!
It’s a beautiful morning here in New York City with clear skies, sun and temperatures expected to be in the mid-80s. Lately, our June weather has been perfect - sunny, warm but not too hot or humid.
Today’s bullets center around creativity in one form or another. Creativity from books, in original screenplays or filmmaking, insightful essays, and some words from Ray Bradbury.
For me, creativity often starts with the spark of a new idea. I jot the idea down and write as much as I can, then return later to revise it. Sometimes this spark will take me a short distance, sometimes a long distance. Creativity also manifests by changing things up and discovering new processes. Often when I walk down a new street in my neighborhood for the first time, I feel as though I’m making new pathways in my brain, by seeing, hearing and experiencing a whole new world I’ve never seen before, but one that exists just outside my everyday life and routine.
What does creativity mean to you? How are you creative?
Bullets this week:
Books: This week I’m digging author, comedian and actor Joshua Turek’s podcast Turek Books which is “like a book club but without the guilt”. Turek invites guests to discuss some of their favorite books and I found the discussions open, honest, silly and engaging. I definitely want to pick up some of these books! Turek demonstrates that hearing someone’s story about how a book changed them or left a lasting impression can be just as enlightening as reading the book.
Essay: The Secrets of Suspense. “In my dreams the baby could talk.” Kathryn Schultz begins this excellent essay with these words, compelling us to continue reading, it’s own form of suspense. She writes about suspense in fiction and how it relates to that feeling of waiting, in anticipation or dread, we experience in our daily lives. There’s useful tips here for writers about how to keep an audience turning the page but mostly it’s a creative take on the nature of suspense - where it comes from and learning to understand it.
Movies: When I saw the 2008 film Changeling earlier this week I thought the story must have been based on a book but I was surprised to learn that the screenplay draws closely on real events. Angelina Jolie plays Christine Collins, a mother whose son Walter disappeared in 1928. This strange story culminates with the discovery of the Wineville Chicken Coop murders.
Podcast: Jack Conte over at Digital Spaghetti sat down with director and editor Max Joseph to discuss his filmmaking style. Joseph says that he starts a video with audio first by sketching out a monologue then adding music to frame the idea before filling it in with video. This resonated with me both as a writer and audio/music person because you don’t have to have everything completely ‘done’ on the first try. You can use the creative sparks which compelled you to write, make a song, etc. as the framework for your projects while filling in the gaps along the way.
Writing: In this 1974 interview with writer Ray Bradbury he says ‘intellect is a great danger to creativity’. He has a sign above his typewriter which says ‘Don’t Think’. Bradbury says that while writing you need to feel things intensely, not to think too much and later you can go back and think about what you’ve written. He says ‘living is supposed to be the center of our lives’ not thinking.
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I love how you mention walking down new streets is like making new pathways in your brain. For me, creativity is like a muscle that you have to exercise in order to get stronger! I feel that devoting time to it every day is strengthening my ability to be creative. Also, Bradbury's quote rings true for me, although it is easier said than done! And it seems like that's what you try to do with your own creative sparks. Maybe the spark is more of a feeling and then the later editing and revising is more thinking? Great post! Thank you.