The Creative Identity

Write Around Town

I've been very slack this month. But I have two stellar reasons for it. First of all, two weeks ago approximately two square meters of plasterwork collapsed from my ceiling onto my table, obliterating everything on it, and the table itself, which got smashed in two, with one leg snapped clear off. It was a Monday evening and I was skipping home on the wings of a triumphant day at the office, in my fantastic new job. And you know the sort of evening: you put the key in the door and smirk to yourself... what should I do tonight? Read a book in a bath filled with 300 liters of foam? Dial for a pizza and indulge myself with Legally Blonde? A leafing through Vogue with a side of cumberbatching? The possibilities were endless, until the lounge rose before my very eyes at the top of the stairs. Why was the Dyson over and backwards and what the buggery bloody hell was that stuff on it? Suffice to say my gentle reader, it was a War Zone and this is indeed one of those occurrences in which one picture is worth a thousand words. Six sacks of rubble and four hours later, I dragged myself to the local Pizza Express to regroup. I left the room (and the kitchen, and the stairs, and the hall), covered by three inches of dust. Lots of people have come and gone since then, lots of pics have been taken, and lots of... Read more →

Summer Blues

Weather too good to do any work? I deeply dislike summer. I don't know whether it's the hay fever, the never-ending light, the insects or what else that annoys me the most, but the upshot is always the same: when summer in England looks like a regular summer in other parts of the world, I am deflated, flat, off colour and operate at a glacial pace. It's been sunny and dry and bright for a good two weeks (a bit unheard of, frankly) and I am in desperate need of a weather-related shift. Last week I worked at full speed at the uni but since Monday I feel like I am walking in freshly-laid tar. I guess that this morning these few words may be more for me than for you dear reader, but if you also struggle with the mere idea of working when outside it all looks so frigging holiday-like, you may find some words of comfort for your struggles. Because I do have work to do, regardless of how poorly the good weather makes me feel, I thought that stringing together a little list would help. If you too are feeling the summer blues, try these: Don't start from the most difficult task first! When you feel the blues, gentle is best. This is the reason why I am writing this piece now, instead of updating the proposal I am currently working on. Write 200 words about feeling blah. Yes, you heard, 200 little words about feeling... Read more →

Resistance and Procrastination

Alex and Sophie go for a walk in order to write in Music and Lyrics I've been quite adamant, if not forceful, about my dislike and contempt for the concept of writer's block. I've told you that it doesn't really exist and that it is an excuse not to work. Thus what I am about to say today may sound like a contradiction, for if I don't think block exists, then why write about ways to unblock ourselves? It depends on how you perceive block, dear reader. If you think of it as a virus that we will all catch sooner or later and that we must sweat through until it has run its course, be this days or months, then you will find the next few paragraphs against the very principles that I have outlined in past articles. If, instead, you recognise that block isn't an entity you are at the mercy of, but a fleeting change in your creative patterns, then you will understand why we don't have to believe in block in order to come up with ways that transmute negative practices into positive creative steps. Super-massive guilty confession: I have a soft spot for Hugh Grant. Among all of his movies there is one that I feel most in tune with, Music and Lyrics, for it is, in a roundabout way, about the creative process as much as it is about surprising partnerships, catchy tunes, big hair, hip thrusting and love. As Alex and Sophie are... Read more →

Blocked? I Don't Think So

Months ago I sat down with a friend of mine and confessed that I was re-reading The Artist's Way because 'it's very good when you are blocked'. The friend looked up from the coffee and replied: 'Fine, but you're not blocked. You've never been blocked'. These few words startled me into a near-anaphylactic shock. I tried to recover by clutching at more and more straws, talking about occasional bouts of inactivity and a sense of scatterbrained helplessness. I insisted that I needed The Artist's Way and that only by its end would I have been able to write again. It didn't feel right though. When I returned home I figured out that this blocked thing does not exist, really. Writer's block is thrown around writing circles as much as wheatgrass juice qualified as talking point among wellbeing freaks a few years back. Unlike the juice which, eventually, fell out of fashion, writer's block continues to provide an escape route to writers and would-be writers everywhere. It ranks as high up as 'I don't have time to write' as an excuse, except it is more damaging because more recurrent, more lasting and more accepted. If only we stopped hiding behind this pillar and stepped into the flickering light of the waiting screen... I don't know where to start, I'm blocked even before I begin! This is the cry of those least used to writing, those who love the idea of setting thoughts to paper or screen, but who discounted what horrid... Read more →