[arg_discuss] Topic of the Week Sept. 14: Perspiration or Inspiration?

[Naomi Alderman]

I actually had a conversation about this recently with Andrea and was
*jealous as hell* when she told me that she can work on a problem and
know that she can then just 'leave things to [her] subconscious' and
reliably wake up the next morning with an idea. (Andrea, is this
roughly what you said?)

It is never like this for me :-(. If I'm not at my desk working, very
little happens. The really great ideas, the ones that make all the
difference to the project, those end up coming at random times (on a
walk, in the pool, in the shower), but for the day-to-day 'what shall
I do with this next scene?' questions it is graft all the way. Sit and
type and type and hope that something comes out.

Dorothea Brande, if you don't know her book 'Becoming a Writer' is
very good on the topic of 'activities that engender ideas'. She
recommends setting yourself a writing (or other creative) problem,
musing on it for a while, and then going off to do something which is
fairly mindless, body-not-brain, perhaps something rhythmic and
peaceful like walking, rocking in a rocking chair, knitting, washing
up or whittling. Sometimes it's worked for me, but more often it's
just banging my forehead with my fist until something falls out.

- Naomi



On Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 8:02 PM, David Flor <dflor71 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm a programmer by trade: I do things first, then think about them later.

> If it takes six complete rewrites to get it right (even if some of those

> rewrites are done for no reason), so be it.

>

> I have a hard time sitting down and coming up with ideas on the spot. Most

> of my ideas come out of the blue at inconvenient times: on the bus, at 3am

> while asleep, watching a movie in the theater, in the shower... I pretty

> much go everywhere with a pen and paper at this point, and also have a set

> on my nightstand (drives the wife crazy).

>

> Judy Tyrer wrote:

>>

>> I don't know about "waiting for an idea to come" as I think you have to be

>> actively involved in DOING and then the idea comes.  It is in the doing of

>> the project that one opens oneself up for ideas to flow.  You can't just

>> watch TV all day waiting for inspiration.  You have to be actively involved

>> in what you are wanting to achieve, regardless of the media in which you are

>> working.  Inspiration comes through perspiration, I guess.  At least, that's

>> been my experience.

>> Judy

>> -----Original Message-----

>> From: arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org [mailto:arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org]

>> On Behalf Of Andrea Phillips

>> Sent: Monday, September 14, 2009 1:50 PM

>> To: Discussion list of the IGDA ARG SIG

>> Subject: [arg_discuss] Topic of the Week Sept. 14: Perspiration or

>> Inspiration?

>>

>> This is a question that came up on IRC a few weeks ago. There are a

>> few ways that creative work happens. On the one hand, there's the

>> Stevie Wonder model, perspiration: You work and work and work (writing

>> dozens of songs a fay, and then, by the numbers, some of the work will

>> be chart-toppers. Then there's the inspiration model, the apocryphal

>> Voltaire writing Candide in three days: You wait until an idea comes

>> to you, and then you execute it in one dizzying whirlwind until it's

>> done.

>>

>> So you: Where do you fall? Skew hard one way or the other? Someplace

>> in the middle? On one end and wish you were on the other?

>>

>>

>

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