creativity

Make It So: Cataloging Writing Places

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

This is an idea that struck me recently, an idea I liked enough to want to write it down and share it before doing it

I’m part of several writing groups and have a lot of creative friends. Often we meet for discussions.

One thing that comes up in our discussions is “we really should meet and write together.”

Then there’s the question of where. We’re in a dense urban area, which means may possible coffee houses and such to write at. We’re also in an area where the coffee houses and other writing spots get crowded because, hey, it’s a dense urban area.

I’d taken to trying out a new spot each week, and then an idea struck me. It’s an idea I’d like to try for myself, but wanted to share it with all you creatives. It’s about finding good writing spots, but also being social (and if you aren’t feeling social, you can sorta reduce that part).

It works like this.

ONE: Have your writing group come up with a list of places you might write. Yes, most will be coffee shops, because they’re basically coworking spaces where you pay by drinking coffee and eating pastries.

TWO: When a member goes out to write or draw or whatever, they select a space out of the list no one has tried yet. They let everyone know so they’re welcome to join them.

THREE: Everyone goes to said place and writes/draws or whatever. If it’s terrible or bad, feel free to move to another area of course.

FOUR: The person who started the meeting and/or the people who attended write up their experience and share it with the group. You could even keep a public blog to share with everyone in your geographic area.

FIVE: Keep an updated and ranked list of the various locations so people can go to good ones – or find new ones.

Sure it’s a simple idea. But there are various benefits:

  • First, you have a neat social thing to do with your creative groups, but one where there’s not pressure to be overly social.
  • Second, you find cool places to be creative.
  • Third, you support good local businesses.
  • Fourth, you find where not to go and avoid wasting time.
  • Fifth you might have a cool writing thing to do keeping a blog, a review, section, etc.

I hope to try something like this with my groups in the next six months or so. But give it a try yourself (especially if I get too busy to try it).

Steven Savage

Sharing Your Work And That One Person

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

We want our creative works to reach people – to inspire, to guide, to entertain, to salve pains. We want to change the world in our own way. So do many other people.

Being a creative puts us in a curious position of feeling like we’re competing. If you had someone say they wished to feed the hungry, they wouldn’t worry about competition. If you knew someone who wished to clean up the environment, they’d welcome all comers. But creative works tend to make us competitive because people have limited attention.

There is rarely a shortage of the poor. There are no shortage of environmental challenges. But when we wish for attention, well, that’s a limited resource.

Which is why, if we want to make people laugh, educate, and overthrow tyrants, we have to rethink how we reach out.

We have to think “how can I help.” If our creative work has value – and let us assume it does – then the real question is how do you help people out.

How do you get the right people to read your book, appreciate your art, and change the world because of a single poem? There’s no right answer, because every work is different. But asking that question of “how do I help” is important.

(If creativity is your career, “how do I help and make a living” ramps up the challenge).

However, there is one thing to consider – have you reached one person and changed their lives?

Many an author or artist or musicians knows this experience. There’s that one person that follows your book, hung up your art, or told you your song got you through a tough time. That single moment is valuable, unshakeable, and powerfully personal.

Those are the moments to look into. How did you reach them? Why did you make a difference? What happened?

Then you can ask how to repeat this moment. How do you repeat that success in having your comic or game get into the right hands? That one person may be the key to transforming the world.

Sadly, you may not be able to find a lesson. Many of we creatives keep shambling forward and trying. But consider the following:

Even if you reach only that one person, there’s hope you can find out how to reach more.

Even if you reach only that one person, that’s one work. Your next work may reach a million.

Even if you reach only that one person, if you reach the right person, they change the world.

That one person is your sign to not give up. After all, that person didn’t give up on you . . .

Steven Savage

You Are The Art

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

We wish our creative works to reach people. We want to shake the thrones of tyrants and overturn oppression. We want to make people laugh, to soothe their cares in the world with fun. We want to sneak behind boredom and stab it in the back to free people’s imaginations.

Yet, will we ever do this?

Will our works reach others? Will they touch them in the ways we hope? Will we inspire others like we were once inspired?

You can never be sure of this. Your work may not be recieved in the way you expected. Time to spread your creations may not be at hand. Your latest creation may have flaws that keep it from reaching others, flaws you don’t know until it’s completed.

We may not change the world with one book or song. We may not change it in a hundred. It can be frustrating, these unkowns, these failures, these unsureties.

If you have these frustrations, be assured you’re not alone. Your friends and fellows share them. People you pass in the streets have novels they fear won’t be loved and art they hate.

But still, what can you do? WIll your work change the world?

Perhaps, but consider what you do change for sure – yourself.

As you create something, you change. You learn new skills and hone ones that exist. You think thoughts you never had before. You study and dream and practice. Each work you create changes the world – by changing yourself.

The person that starts writing a book is not the same person who completes it. If you are aware of it, that new you becomes a better person – wiser, more skilled, and more aware.

This new person you’ve become can change the world. They have better understanding, make better decisions, are more adept at their creativity. You are your own creative work, and you become more by pursuing your dreams and creations.

This new person may fail at one creative work, yet they have grown. Their next story, or piece of art, or book may shake the world. They may realize how to promote old work with new insights. The future you has more and more chances to change the world – because they grow with each creation.

May your books be read, your songs be sung, your art appreciated. May you change the world for the better, but always appreciate how everything you create helps you become an even better person.

And, consider that as you evolve in your writing or drawing, how stealthily and subtly it happens. Your sentences and verses push you forward to become something more. The tyrants, both men and ideas, won’t see you evolving or growing. They won’t know how you might evolve.

Until, perhaps, it is too late for them.

Steven Savage