Prepare to be lucky

[rec]

Once again, I quote from Twyla Tharp's outstanding book The Creative Habit, Learn It and Use It for Life.

 

"[T]here's a fine line between good planning and overplanning, You never want the planning to inhibit the natural evolution of your work."

 

"A plan is like the scaffolding around a building. When you're putting up the exterior shell, the scaffolding disappears. That's how I think of planning. It has to be sufficiently thoughtful and solid to get the work up and standing straight, but it cannot take over as you toil away on the interior guts of a piece. Transforming your ideas rarely goes according to plan.

 

"This, to me, is the most interesting paradox of creativity: In order to be habitually creative, you have to know how to prepare to be creative, but good planning alone won't make your efforts successful; it's only after you let go of your plans that you can breathe life into your efforts."

 

"Your creative endeavors can never be thoroughly mapped out ahead of time. You have to allow for the suddenly altered landscape, the change in plan, the accidental spark--and you have to see it as a stroke of luck rather than a disturbance of your perfect scheme. Habitually creative people are, in the words of E.B. White's phrase, "prepared to be lucky."

[Libby Drew]

Once again, I quote from Twyla Tharp's outstanding book The Creative Habit, Learn It and Use It for Life.

 

"[T]here's a fine line between good planning and overplanning, You never want the planning to inhibit the natural evolution of your work."

 

"A plan is like the scaffolding around a building. When you're putting up the exterior shell, the scaffolding disappears. That's how I think of planning. It has to be sufficiently thoughtful and solid to get the work up and standing straight, but it cannot take over as you toil away on the interior guts of a piece. Transforming your ideas rarely goes according to plan.

 

"This, to me, is the most interesting paradox of creativity: In order to be habitually creative, you have to know how to prepare to be creative, but good planning alone won't make your efforts successful; it's only after you let go of your plans that you can breathe life into your efforts."

 

 

Yes, it's very much a balancing act.

[Tiger]

Rec, I may have to procure this book. It would help me tremendously to stay inspired as a writer so that I can be a more productive writer.

[Boy In Doubt]

I totally agree.

 

To be creative a writer has to be be able to let go, otherwise the story just turns into an over-edited, over-scripted piece lacking emotion. And where's the fun in that?

 

I find that when I outline my plot it's important to allow myself to make changes along the way, taking risks which in the long run would prove to be worth it.