How to Blast Writer's Block:

why so Serious?

I like this photo of Oscar Wilde.

He liked to appear idle in pictures, but he was quite productive.

Creative writing has some shared DNA with the other arts (painting, illustrations, cartooning), in that that there's a belief among some writers that writing has to be hard to be good.

Bringing a sense of joy and fun to the creative process in art, somehow takes away from the importance of what you're creating.

Try to imagine what it must be like try to create from such a place.

There's more than a touch of arrogance to your motivations.

You're creating, not for the sheer pleasure of expressing yourself, but because you want to be seen as great.

There's a world of difference between wanting to be great and wanting to be seen as great.

The former comes from a love for your chosen mode of artistic expression, and to push the boundaries of it.

The latter is motivated by ego.

When creativity is motivated by external factors-fame, adulation, fan worship, all of which are manifestations of the need for approval from others-you’re cut off from the muse.

The subconscious, the place where your ideas, your influences and your creative impulses merge and intersect in exciting and fun ways, is blocked off from access to the higher realm where true wisdom lies by the hunger for attention and reward driving the conscious thought process.

You’re restricting your access to the muse, in the same way clogged arteries restrict smooth blood flow through your veins.

Think of the times you're trying to accomplish something at less than optimal health.

It's a struggle to just apply a process, never mind getting something done.

You have moments of clarity, times when you can see what you want to do. But aches take your focus away from the ethereal to your compromised physicality. Mortality is forced on you in a very real way when you want to travel inward to the collective conscious for ideas.

There is no joy in such an environment.

But if that’s not physical condition, why would you want to go around in such a state of mind?

You’re at an art event where a friend of yours receives praise for something she made while in a joyous state, and you’re seething with jealousy, because aren’t you receiving this praise.

You did “serious” work, while she had fun.

The serious element has caused you to bring competition into a situation where uniqueness is a better marketing weapon than brooding.

Back to Oscar Wilde.

He not only wanted to appear lazy, he took great delight in dividing his audience’s opinion of himself. When asked about walking down Picadilly holding a lilly flower while wearing long hair, Wilde said, "It's not whether I did it or not that's important, but whether people believed I did it."

Why were they so serious?

Wilde used the divisiveness he generated to create a brand that got him noticed, then won them over with his wit and personality.

I get that seriousness is a thing in the art world. Artists aiming for grant money need to infuse their work with a sense of importance.

But what if you could use seriousness as a trap? Something you wear as a lure, to then win them over with the passion of creation from a place of joy?

This reminds me of Sullivan’s Travels (1941.) John Sullivan (Joel McCrea) is a successful Hollywood director of comedies, who feels his work is lacking depth. After a series of Coen-brothers’ like situations land him in a hard labor camp for vagrants and he is rescued by his producer, he sees the value of comedies to people who have nothing.

If you’re new to here and you haven’t gone through all my writing, in here I share a simple exercise to bring spontaneity and fun to creative writing.

Merry Christmas!