The easiest blocks to writing are getting out of routine and being lazy. Most of what I write is academic and the technical delivery of teaching (for distance learning) - the stuff is so dull it's easy not to do it. There is no real market to produce interesting material for. I was tempted to call my company 'Wolf From Door Productions'. I'm not really concerned with 'boot-to-arse' motivations to do this stuff, more with what prevents a more creative impulse getting into print, onto screen or cluttering up some living space like one of Facil's sculptures.
I'm a snob on creativity and tend to wish the vast majority of 'entertainment' like selfies and television had been subject to writing block and probably producers being put on the block. I can pick up most books and see how I could write a version - this is dead easy with academic material and most stories - but the process is demotivating on the grounds one is only going to produce a clone. This is the way of the world - the simulacrum. How does one write an original? Can we give any examples (originals in this world of copied copies might be a myth)? If we knew how to do originals would be bother doing any - why not program machines and let them churn them out? Would the rest of the world recognise an original? Is trying to produce one to finally stick one's head into permanent darkness? When you write for student consumption you know they mostly won't 'listen' - most academic courses are so dull people are only there for the money (lecturers and the vast bureaucracy they support) certification, gossip, sex chances and so on. I even write business maths courses on the assumption no one could do them without me giving them worked examples that can be cloned into exam questions and spreadsheets. My cut and paste learn organisational dynamics whilst remaining an English-illiterate Chinese is particularly popular amongst lecturers who have exhausted their voices on deaf ears and discovered their foreign students have all been submitting essays written 20 years ago with minor changes like the name at the top. Two of my Pakistani students submitted identical essay at the same time in the days of Tipex. I remonstrated with them on the grounds they should have noticed they had Tipexed over a fail grade. What I want is Molly's self-at-peace-not-worrying-about-others-evaluation-in-self-evaluation and Facil's obvious ability to churn out originals like a queen bee's eggs - the effortless production line of the creative process! I may have got the wrong end of several sticks at this point ... One block I'm considering is that creativity is a sort of licensed brainwork. Of course, considering blocks is eventually a block - if one considers methodology too long one can never do any practice. -- --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
