And now for something completely different

From the moment I started work today I found myself engaged in the mundane tasks that I wrote about in Escape the Mundane. A mountain of validating and editing training curriculum beckoned me to press on. That kind of work makes the day go very fast, but it doesn't exactly evoke a lot of creativity. Just after lunch and gobbling another chapter of 59 Seconds, I slipped back to my lair to Prnt Scrn, edit shots, and catalog images for the manual.

In the morning I was using two laptops to do my work. In the afternoon, my faithful Dell was able to be my music source and visual distraction. For my visual I applied Wiseman's advice and put up an image of geometric shapes. At a point that I wearied of my cutting and pasting, I sat back and looked at the geo-shapes. The idea behind the exercise is to let your mind be engaged into something completely different than your current activity.

Instead of focusing on my current situation I thought about my problem of writer's fatigue with a script I need to finish. I posed a question to myself: How can I review my script in a fresh way? I pondered the geo-shape (insert) for a few minutes, and then went for a short walk down the hall. Almost as soon as I left my office I could feel my brain percolating with an idea. Eureka!

The answer my friend came with a whoosh! Record the script using Camtasia and listen to it on my commutes to Pueblo. Record it in Camtasia so I can also listen to it at work with the script automatically flipping page-to-page with my reading. To capture and reinforce that creative thought I made a date in my date timer for Saturday to do the recording.

Very cool how the brain works. I can't wait to try this on other mental roadblocks. Speaking of something completely different...

Escape the Mundane

“Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous.” Bill Moyers, Journalist

Several of my friends do freelance work so that they can pursue that which drives them. They put in unending hours of editing, reworking pieces, or slaving away at the rigors of prep and post production. As a screenwriter, I am intimate with working a scene or character over and over. In the midst of editing, the tasks can begin to feel ...well...boring.

Creative block (pick your poison) can rob an artist of the very will to live if allowed to fester. That is why it is so important to escape the mundane. You have probably heard the phrase "so heavenly minded that he or she is of no earthly good." That is mundane defined: consumed or trapped by earthly, worldly cares. A Bohemian attitude may help ease the depressed condition of living the life of a three job pauper, but it doesn't unshackle the creative genius within.

There are so many people with formulaic answers for creative block and the torture of living day-to-day with the mundane. Some of those solutions include: will power, visualization, coaching, drug induced stupor, or a line up of ineffective or self-destructive behaviors that may never deliver your answers. Eventually you plod through to the end with a certain level of resentment as the payoff or never finish your project.

Richard Wiseman recommends several concrete solutions in his book 59 Seconds. Wiseman throws down a challenge to the mindset that change can come by wishful thinking. "Fantasizing about your perfect world may put a smile on your face, but it is unlikely to help transform your dreams into reality." He describes the process of as "getting in touch with your inner gorilla." The actions you can take to escape the mundane -- at least long enough to regain your sanity -- include:

• Priming—work hard on the problem then do something completely different...then come back to the problem

• Perspective—Put yourself in a different role/person
• Play—15 minute fun break
• Perceive—Ask yourself an interesting question and get the answer

I hit a block with my writing back in October. This week I am going to use these tools to revive the rework of one of my favorite scripts. Success is right around the corner. Chris Soth encouraged me today with these words, "you need to find joy in the process." If you don't enjoy what you are doing, you will have to revive that joy to earn the reward of fulfillment.