10.30.07
Re: Creation
Whenever I get a rejection letter or something similar with regards to my writing, the people around me who hear about it react with some sense of wonder. “You’re so creative,” they say; “How do you come up with that kind of stuff?” I always tend to shrug it off– or, more likely, point to the rejection letter as proof that I’m not nearly as ‘creative’ as they or I seem to think I am. But to be honest, I’ve been giving a little bit of thought to it, and I might have a little insight into it.
First, though, I did want to share this link, 110+ Resources of Creative Minds, which actually got me thinking about it. There’re a lot of things in there which I feel are pretty universal– that is, stuff that applies to everyone, regardless of whether they are creative or aspire to creativity. I encourage everyone to give it a look (and 110 is really such a small number, actually…).
A few weeks ago, Pez said something that got to me– he said that I was a “naturally creative person” (and I hope he’ll forgive me if perhaps that’s a slight paraphrase. I’m pretty sure that this was in regards to Incon, or a different project (which got shot down recently). Anyway, it did trigger me to wondering just why I was so creative. My ‘natural ADD’, as I’ve put it, makes me predisposed in some cases to looking at multiple projects at the same time, and finding parallels and similarities in them that often would not be seen. In all honesty, my creativity is just taking advantage of perhaps an overactive pattern-recognition engine somewhere within my head.
That’s actually the majority of creativity in general. You’ve heard the concept that “two heads are better than one”? It’s the same way with ideas. Just because someone else has taken a look at an idea and come to a conclusion, doesn’t mean you can’t. More to the point, it’s entirely possible that you’ll add something to the discussion. At the very least, you’ll be agreeing with somebody. That applies not just to blog posts or matters of opinion, but to fiction ideas, too. If you accept that gamma radiation makes the Hulk… Hulk-y, then write about that! If not, then tell your story of why the Hulk is green and upset! It’s all a matter of perspectives: yours and your reader’s.
Creativity is, at its core, opinionatedness junctioned onto fearlessness.
Anyway, I have some words to say about Tokyopop’s novel line… but I’d rather not actually say them right now. Not until I’m sure that what I’m going to say is actually accurate. Though this hint is pretty obvious: the incident with the Slayers novels does not look to be an isolated case…
I’ll likely have Bailout tomorrow or something brief.
Ismail Saeed said,
10.30.07 at 7:36 am
… Am I going to want to froth at the mouth again?
I used to have nothing against this company, really.
Now I wish they weren’t the ubiquitous manga publisher they are.