John Cleese is a curmudgeon who thinks about creativity.
By ‘creativity’ Cleese means “new ways of thinking about things” (p. 3). Anyone can do it in any area of their life, and the circumstances through which a person will enact their creativity are teachable.
That is the purpose of this Short and Cheerful Guide, which comes in at 103 pages, and some of those are blank. It is a sound introduction to creative practice for those who haven’t thought much about it. Cleese uses simple language to present his solid theoretical and practical understanding. It is a book for anyone but especially for writers.
If you do creative work before bed, your brain will do some work while you’re sleeping. Whether awake or asleep, your ‘unconscious’ mind will work on your creative problem even when you are not focussed on it. Cleese invokes the word ‘unconscious’ here for mental processes that occur without focussed attention. The language of the unconscious, Cleese says, is not verbal, but the language of hints and nudges.
Cleese uses a creative framework drawn from Guy Claxton’s hare brain and tortoise mind. The hare brain refers to “‘a way of knowing that relies on reason and logic, on deliberate conscious thinking’” (Claxton in Cleese, p. 35). This is the mode of thinking for problem-solving. Tortoise mind, in contrast, is slower, and “‘is often less purposeful and clear-cut, more playing, leisurely or dreamy’” (Claxton in Cleese, p. 35). It is contemplative, pondering a problem rather than trying to solve a problem.
The tortoise mind is just as intelligent as the hare brain, and it is this slow deliberation that is linked to creativity and wisdom. Two acts are linked to the tortoise mind: deferring decisions and play. Creative people know how to play with a problem, and they can sit with the discomfort of not having a definitive solution to the problem. The longer you can hold off making a decision before the deadline, the more information you might receive and the more ideas you might generate.
[C]reative people are much better at tolerating the vague sense of worry that we all get when we leave something unresolved. (p. 45)
Cleese says the biggest killer of creativity is being interrupted. Once you are in that state of deep focus of playful pondering, any interruption makes it hard to get back there. The biggest interruptions are those that come from inside yourself, when for example you doubt yourself or think you are making a mistake. “When you’re being creative there is no such this as a mistake” (p. 48). Interruptions need to be removed so you can enter your tortoise mind. Practice letting your distractions go; practice sitting there until your mind settles.
You create boundaries of space to stop others interrupting you ... You create boundaries of time, by arranging, for a specific period, to preserve your boundaries of space. (p. 50)
Once settled and calm, odd ideas will pop into your mind. As these ideas “speak the language of the unconscious” (p. 55), hinds and nudges, we must be quiet to hear it. When we do hear it, when we are being creative, we will most likely be a little confused. There is “a real lack of clarity during most of the process”, (p. 59), with much tortoise mind work happening in “an atmosphere of uncertainty and gentle confusion” (p. 60).
Don’t rush, don’t try to chase down those unclear thoughts. Let them come slowly and quietly and eventually a new idea will emerge. Once that idea has emerged, only then do you bring in your hare brain to assess its usefulness, but it’s important not to bring in critical thinking too soon. Once you’ve introduced the hare brain and you’ve been working in it for long enough you might feel bored, at which point you return to the tortoise mind. “This back and forth process is called iteration. It’s what creative people do all the time” (p. 64).
Cleese offers hints and suggestions:
“[Y]ou are most likely to be creative in an area that you already know and care about” (p. 72).
If you can’t come up with your own idea, borrow someone else’s. While you’are playing with it you’ll be making it your own. This is done all the time in writing.
“[T]he bigger the [imaginative] leap, the longer the creative period is likely to be” (p. 77).
Different disciplines have different time frames for creativity. In sciences, you must learn everyone else’s work before you can have your own creative ideas. In the arts, early career people can have creative moments they are unable to repeat at later times. In any discipline, “[m]any people, in the course of acquiring great understanding and knowledge of a subject, become conventional in their thinking” (p. 81). Playing can help with this.
Writing blocks aren’t an interruption in process but a part of the process. Fallow times are necessary for fertile times. Don’t waste your time by getting discouraged.
Panic in the face of a problem can be helpful as it will give you the energy to start working on the problem. These initial forays will probably be terrible, but they are helpful as it will prime your unconscious.
As creativity is a frame of mind, if you’re not in a good frame of mind you’re going to struggle to be creative.
As soon as you think you know what you’re doing you’re going to stop learning.
An idea should be tested when it’s ready and can be tested in two ways. First, by bringing your hare brain to it. Second, you can put the idea into action. Build the prototype or show your writing to others.
Over the course of a project your ideas are going to change. Elements from the beginning of a project aren’t always going to fit in the later stages of the project. Good writers cut those elements, no matter how much they like them. This is the meaning of the phrase ‘kill your darlings’. “Good writers “are more murderous” (p. 99).
When a writer shows another person their work they should ask four questions: Where did you get bored? Where couldn’t you understand what was happening? Where did you think events weren’t credible? Was there anything emotionally confusing? (pp. 100-101). Listen to the answers to those questions but be careful listening to the proposed solutions. It is often better to figure out how to fix things yourself. And seek advice at the right time – not too early, not too late.
Finally, write things short. No one likes to be bored.
Commentaires