Tag: creativity

What Elizabeth Gilbert Can Teach Us About Creativity

March 1, 2019

Categories: Uncategorized

In her 2014 TED Talk “Success, failure and the drive to keep creating,” author Elizabeth Gilbert shares with her audience the ultimate key to success in life: not giving up. Even though she says had a lot of success with her book Eat, Pray, Love, Gilbert felt that she would never become successful again and would fail with her next work. However, even though she at many times felt like she wanted to just quit writing and do other things, she realized that what she considered her home, her sanctuary, the thing that made her the woman she was, was writing. She tells the audience that she has been writing since she was a child and would often send her work to established publishers. She busted her butt as a waitress at a diner and got rejected multiple times by publishers. Nevertheless, she kept writing and writing even if it wasn’t perfect to the publishers who rejected her because she loved writing more than anything else, even more than herself. Gilbert has made me understand that writing is not a selfish pursuit and you’ve got to not only create your own work, but read and learn from others. Gilbert, like many writers, read a lot growing up. According to her biography, she worked several different jobs at bars, diners and ranches and used these experiences from her life to inspire her fictional works.

In the TED talk she reveals that even as a successful woman she still worried about feeling like a failure, and points out that too often we associate failure with feelings of shame and success with money, prosperity and recognition. However, she says that no matter what, you cannot be swayed by failure and just have to keep getting yourself to work. And she didn’t even need to quit her day job as a waitress to write full-time because if you don’t have a lot of money, it’s okay to work a day job to pay the bills while getting yourself out there as a creative. Many creatives do it, and unless their financial circumstances are perfect and somehow they can just spend their lives just pursuing their passion, they have to just keep doing it no matter what the inner critic tells them in their head. In an earlier TED talk on creative genius, she talks about how people would tell her she was going to fail after being so successful after Eat, Pray, Love as an adult, but realized that people had been telling her this ever since she was a teenager and declared she wanted to become a writer. She admitted to being afraid of failure among other things, but understood the deep-rooted stigma around creative careers.

Often creatives do struggle with mental health issues, but not all creatives do so, and yet the media has constantly associated being a creative with suffering and having all sorts of mental health issues. Mental health can affect one whatever career they find themselves in, whether it be as a chemist, a businessperson, waiter, you name it. However, even as artists it’s okay for us to take care of ourselves and not feel like we should fit society’s misconceptions of what an artist truly is. Even as a musician and writer, I need to take care of my mental health, whether that’s continuing to work at my day job or eating dinner or reading a book for fun. As an artist I realized I need to transcend my own ego to create value from my work. In the TED Talk on genius, Gilbert explains how notions of creativity changed over time; she says that the ancient Greeks and Romans believed creativity came to human beings from daemons, or an external entity, like an outside muse who would help shape the artist’s work and provide them inspiration. They did not believe in human creatives taking all the credit for their genius, but then the Renaissance came and people started replacing muses and daemons with a more “rational” artist philosophy centered on the human individual as the ultimate creator of art. Gilbert says that this shift from daemons to an ego-centered art philosophy has forced a lot of artists to place enormous pressure on themselves to the point where it becomes emotionally destructive for them to produce such high-quality art (we clearly saw this in the film Black Swan, where Nina places enormous pressure on herself to succeed as a dancer and ends up destroying herself in the process.)

Indeed, when she was writing Eat, Pray and Love she hit an impasse and thought that her work was doomed to fail and that she should just stop writing. However, she sought inspiration from the poet Ruth Stone and the musician Tom Waits, because both of these artists heard inspiration from outside themselves and caught it before it disappeared. She says that Ruth Stone would literally envision a poem running after her and so she ran to her house and furiously “grabbed” the poem by writing it on the page as fast as she could before it went flying off looking for another poet. Tom Waits, as he got older, heard a melody in his head while driving his car, and instead of worrying whether he’d lose that idea, literally looked up at the sky and said for the idea to let him drive and come back to him later. So what Gilbert did was actually look up from her manuscript at an empty spot in a wall and tell that spot that it needed to help her find inspiration instead of letting her do all the work, and that if it doesn’t show up, then she’s going to keep writing because that’s what she loves.

I really like what she said in both of these TED Talks because I think as creatives we tend to get really hard on ourselves. We consume a lot of other people’s work and while that’s good for inspiration, if we use it to compare ourselves to these other artists, we won’t really get a chance to bring our brilliant ideas to the table. In my spare time, I sought out fodder I could use for my blog, in the form of news articles, pieces on personal finance, YouTube videos. However, I came to a standstill and realized that I was consuming a lot of material and not really forming my own opinion on that material. So that’s why it helps me to get off the computer, get off my phone for a while, so that I can think without too much external stimuli. Looking up from my work or taking a break from practicing my instrument to just walk around has helped me find inspiration that I didn’t think I had before. I went the other day to a garden store and even just being outside with nice-smelling plants and fresh air helped me get out of my head and come back to why I was doing all this creative work in the first place. I really like how Gilbert talks about the history of creative philosophy because I didn’t understand why I felt so selfish pursuing writing or music, and understood that there was, along the course of history, a development of thought that began to emphasize a more self-focused approach to creativity, one where the artist takes all the credit. However, I think it’s hard to take all the credit because as artists we constantly influence one another. Lady Gaga influenced the music styles of several artists, just as Lady Gaga herself had numerous musical influences growing up. When we approach the works of others with a healthy mindset that we are going to learn from their works and then critically think about their work from our point of view, and how these works can inspire us in some way to create our own work, then we can each let our muses work at their finest and contribute to our creativity in life-changing ways.

To seek inspiration from Gilbert’s two incredibly inspirational TED Talks these videos are below.

Movie Review: Can You Ever Forgive Me?

May 11, 2019

Categories: movies

I just finished watching the film Can You Ever Forgive Me?, starring Melissa McCarthy as the late writer Lee Israel, who, in real life forged around 400 letters that several famous individuals had written during their lifetimes. She sold these letters and made serious bank from them (the title comes from a line in one of the Dorothy Parker letters Lee forged, asking the person being addressed, “Can you ever forgive me?”) Lee was a struggling writer who could pay neither the vet bills for her cat, Jersey, nor her rent, and her writing kept getting rejected. Her agent didn’t support her because Lee was always cooped up in her house and never went out to meet people, but instead of finding a job like being a bartender or working a 9 to 5, Lee gets money by forging letters by famous writers such as Dorothy Parker and selling them to booksellers that would take them. She was able to pay her landlord, her vet bills and trips to the bar with her friend Jack, who himself is struggling to be successful. Lee has Jack help her sell the forged letters. Of course, the FBI ends up finding out that Lee lied all this time and she incurs serious punishment for it.

If I got anything out of this movie (and believe me, I got a ton out of it. Is it any wonder that the film got 98 percent on Rotten Tomatoes?) it’s this: It’s much better to let yourself write a bad first draft than not start at all. It’s better to put your own work out there even if you think it’s far from perfect, because that’s sure as heck better than taking other people’s writing and claiming it for your own. Writing your own stuff is not just fun, it’s also common sense if you want to stick with copyright laws and not land in court for it. I have heard countless cases in the music industry where families of musicians sue new musicians for using a hook or phrase in their songs without crediting the original songwriter or performer.

It reminded me so much of the film Big Eyes, which is about the true story of Margaret Keane, whose husband, Walter, sold her paintings of sad-eyed children and took all the credit for them. In Big Eyes, Margaret gets to do what she wants, which is painting, so she doesn’t have to have a non-art-related day job. However, staying cooped up in her studio painting takes a tremendous toll on her mental, physical and emotional health, and while her husband is doing the marketing part and not the actual painting, she is the one who deserves the credit because she actually put her heart and soul into these paintings, and they came from her heart. In Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Lee’s agent tells her that instead of trying to hide who she is, the only way she can become a real writer is by writing her own stuff. Imposter syndrome is real for a lot of people, but especially for creatives it can be a huge pain in the butt to deal with. Imposter syndrome means that no matter how much money or recognition you get from selling your art, performing beautiful music, or speaking publicly before a large audience, you feel like someday someone is actually going to take away your trophy or tell you you aren’t as good as you seem and that your next work will be a total flop. Can You Ever Forgive Me? takes a totally new spin on imposter syndrome because instead of being this writer who writes in her own voice, Lee actually was an impostor because she pretended to be the writer of those letters when, in fact, she wasn’t.

I have lately been reading about the music business because I was still debating whether to put my music out there since I’ve been reading about how streaming is hurting musicians’ incomes because companies like Spotify and YouTube are offering up their music for free. I watched a talk that former CEO of music publishing company TuneCore Jeff Price did one time, and he talked about copyright in the music industry and how it relates to songwriters, and lately I have been thinking about composing my own pieces. I thought at first, I don’t have a music degree, how can I possibly compose my own pieces? But somehow I took a scale and just mixed up the notes and played it, and to me it sounded fine. Art is a subjective thing; not everyone’s going to love, see or appreciate what you bring to the table, but it’s a job like every other job out there. You just have to show up and do the work even if it is garbage at first. I remember all of the librarians and English teachers who would tell us to cite our sources, warning about the dangers of plagiarism. I’m glad they did, because forgetting these rules can ruin you as an adult.

Lee’s forgery doesn’t just impact her ability to pay her rent and keep her life together; it affects her friendships because she cannot tell anyone what she does for a living. If she tells people, she knows they will find out, so she keeps her distance, even with the bookseller who goes out to have dinner with her. The bookseller, Anna, writes her own stories even though she doesn’t think they are good enough to publish, but at least she actually wrote her own stuff. Lee got so caught up in this idea that her writing needed to be this incredible thing, while Tom Clancy was out there publishing several books and making bank. When Lee got caught up in what people thought about her writing, she stopped writing for herself and became this person she wasn’t. When she goes to the party she overhears a published author say how people with writer’s block are “lazy,” and of course this ticks her off. But I definitely do think that when we come out of ourselves, recognize we have this writer’s block and then resolve to write anything just to combat it, we see what we’re actually capable of. It’s like, if you don’t try, you won’t know what you can do, and it seems the more I publish my own writing (aka through this blog) I have come to understand that while I am an introvert, I have things to be said that need saying. I think that as I write more, I find more quality writing out of my bad drafts, and I stop worrying about what others are thinking of me. Rejection is just a fact of life, and like orchestra auditions, getting turned down by magazines and publishers hurts like hell, but you just need to keep writing your own stuff.

When I write my own music, my own blog posts, my own stories, I feel a sense of catharsis. I’m not doing this for the money or the fame; I’m writing original stuff because I love it. I don’t want to be an imitation of anyone, even though it’s hard to not be influenced by all kinds of writers because you are always reading. But I know I will never be Roger Ebert or Peter Travers or cellist Jacqueline du Pre. I know I won’t have the same journey to success as other people, but everyone has their own story to tell. The film taught me that if you want to make a name for yourself, you of course can still be introverted, but you need to show people the hard work and passion you put in your writing. I have a day job that isn’t related to writing or music because I want to be able to pay for all these movies I watch to write these blog posts, and I want to be able to keep seeing my writing and music as things I love. Now of course, like I said, we shouldn’t always give our work for free because art is a job like anything else. But great writers typically don’t write just so they can get paid. New York City rent is pricey, but that’s why a lot of creatives in the city have day jobs so they can spend their evenings creating art and creating community in the process.

Melissa McCarthy once said in a New York Times piece I read on her that a lot of people like to pigeonhole her as the funny lady who is always doing slapstick stuff, like The Boss and Bridesmaids. These of course were awesome movies, but I really like seeing McCarthy perform in a drama because I typically don’t see her in serious films. In the interview, she said that Can You Ever Forgive Me? gave her a chance to show people that people who normally star in goofy comedies have the diverse range of talent to be able to shift like a chameleon to a drama. Her performance as Lee Israel locked me in and didn’t let me out of its sight until the end of the film.

Here is an excellent article I read in Writer’s Digest a couple of months ago when I was struggling with writer’s block and thinking of seeing the film:

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/5-lessons-writers-can-learn-from-the-film-can-you-ever-forgive-me

Can You Ever Forgive Me? 2018. Rated R for language including some sexual references, and brief drug use.

The Benefits of Being Bored

February 5, 2019

Categories: Uncategorized

There is a piece by Pamela Paul titled “Let Children Get Bored Again,” and in this essay she challenges the stigma associated with boredom in today’s hyperconnected society and encourages readers to appreciate boredom. Historically, having leisure time was a privilege reserved for the middle class, but people who couldn’t afford such leisure time had to do back-breaking work in fields and factories. According to Paul, “agricultural and industrial jobs were often mind-numbing; few people were looking to be fulfilled by paid labor,” so children had to get used to not having their parents around to look out for them and got creative by reading books and climbing trees, and later, watching TV. This boredom isn’t bad; in fact, it fosters creativity in kids. As a kid I remember reading a lot of books because there weren’t any tablets or advanced technology back then. I also wrote a lot of stories and drew pictures. It was nice not having a packed schedule because I could always be in my head. Did it make me any popular with the other kids in school? Not really, but I enjoyed it. Even during my summer breaks in high school I was always reading for fun. I was able to travel to new worlds and meet different characters and this helped me with my school projects and expressing myself musically.

Nowadays, people often see boredom as a bad thing, regardless of parents’ race, class, or income, and parents feel they must constantly be taking their kids to multiple activities in order to fill up their time. In the film Bad Moms, for instance, the main character Amy is always taking her kids to activities and doing their homework, so not only does she lose out on leisure time but also her kids don’t have time to appreciate having free afternoons to themselves. Had Amy felt less self-imposed pressure to supervise her kids and constantly be keeping them busy, they might have appreciated time to be creative and this could have helped Amy’s daughter worry less about getting on the softball team or made her son less worrisome about his mom not making breakfast for him. He could have learned to make his own breakfast early on.

We have seen a few instances in film in which kids use boredom to take care of themselves and think of original ideas. Matilda Wormwood, in the eponymous children’s book and movie with Mara Wilson, has parents who care more about their son than they do about their daughter. While they sit and watch TV, Matilda learns how to spell her own name and read a lot of books. She also learns how to practice her superpower of telekinesis. One famous scene in the film is when her parents and brother leave her alone in the house to herself. Her mom, played by Rhea Perlman, tells her that if she’s hungry, there’s a can of Campbell’s soup for her to heat up if she gets hungry. Instead of just listening to her mom, however, Matilda makes a fresh batch of pancakes for herself, and gets to enjoy her breakfast while reading her book at the kitchen table in peace.

As we see later in the film, Matilda’s resilience and self-sufficiency help her develop a thick skin against the school bully and principal, Miss Trunchbull, and help her excel in her classes because she’s spent so much time alone reading books. Had she been over supervised by her parents she would not have been able to appreciate having the space to develop her sense of self.

It should also be noted that filling your kids’ schedules with activities is also expensive and that many families cannot afford to send their kid to this activity or that activity. Paul says that even at her most boring after-school jobs, she found ways to make them fun, like coming up with stories about the purchases that customers in the checkout lines made (“the man buying eggplant and a six-pack of Bud at 9 p.m.: Which was the must-get item and which the impulse purchase? How did my former fifth-grade teacher feel about my observing her weekly purchase of Nutter Butter?”) (Paul, “Let Children Get Bored Again”) Like her I had a couple of average jobs, such as dishwasher and barista, but the monotony of these jobs has allowed me time to be in my head and appreciate conversations with my coworkers about things we love, such as SpongeBob SquarePants, music and movies. (edit 2/18/21: in retrospect, these jobs also gave me an appreciation for routine because I learned where to put the utensils, what time to pull pastries from the fridge, the daily drink orders of frequent customers, how long it was going to take me to set up the store from 5 am-6 am and which tasks I needed to prioritize during that hour)

There is an ad by The Ad Council and the Afterschool Alliance in which a girl sings to her cat in her bedroom when she is bored.

The ad is supposed to encourage kids to pursue an afterschool program so that they don’t end up like that girl. As someone who participated in orchestra throughout school, I am a strong proponent of afterschool programs. However, it’s important to not have kids spread themselves thin. In the documentary Race to Nowhere, students in high schools are seen constantly doing extracurricular activities and coming home late to do homework. It not only makes them exhausted, sick and stressed, but also inhibits their ability to think critically and enjoy school in their own way.

According to Pamela Paul, teachers are trying too hard to make their classes interesting to students because they think students no longer listen to long lectures. While this may sound good in the short term, it’s just that: a short term strategy before students get bored again. Paul says it’s best to teach kids how to be bored now because in their adult lives, even in jobs they love (read “follow your dream” jobs) they still need to check emails. As Erin Griffith noted in her article, “Why Are Young People Pretending to Love Work?” even people who seem to be at their dream job have to complete monotonous tasks such as checking emails.

The article ends with a beautiful quote that sums everything up:

“This sounds boring, you might conclude. It sounds like work, and it sounds like life. Perhaps we should get used to it again, and use it to our benefit. Perhaps in an incessant, up-the-ante world, we could do with a little less excitement.” -Pamela Paul, Sunday New York Times review, “Let Children Be Bored Again”

Indeed, I think with all this technology that was supposed to make our lives easier, it’s somehow made our lives more stressful and many, if not all, of us would do well with some unfulfilled time to just reflect and get creative with our time. (edit 2/18/21: technology has become a huge part of our lives during the COVID-19 pandemic, so it’s pretty much unavoidable, but I’ve found that taking occasional breaks from my screen has helped with my mental health. I’ve found writing notes to friends, reading and meditation to be helpful ways to spend time away from my screen this past year)