A Really Grood Thing and Two Kinds of Work
So, I sent my first short story to Circus Jeff to read'n'comment on. It's a scifi tale set in a scifi world (with a scifi giiiirl, laughing plastic, it's fantastic! Ok, weird swedish Barbie song interlude over) and in discussing said world, I mentioned that it'd be cool of C.J. wrote a story in that world. And he totally did! And I totally loved it! What a grood thing.
He writes about the creative handover better than me in his blargh: www.jeffwills.blogspot.com. I agree with what he says, so go read it. (If you want to.) To sum up: throwing ideas/assignments back and forth is awesome.
Now, it took me like a month to write my story, and I think it's just ok. Circus Jeff wrote his in a few days, and it's great, and I don't lie about that stuff. And, unless there's something he's not telling me, he's kind of in the same place as I am with writing; in other words, neither of us has been consistently working on it much in the last five years or so. So what gives? Why come did I agonize and throw my laptop across the room, and why come did he tear out a supremely awesome first draft?
I would like to think that I did some of the heavy lifting in coming up with the alternate future world, so I had a set of parameters to hand over. However, I also think there's a more complete answer.
Since college, I have been: spending most of my time in an Office Space kind of environment, and the rest playing/singing backup in bands, watching TV with friends and roller skating. The closest I've come to creative work has been songwriting in Cuddle Party (holla, Atomicate!) We did most of that via IM and didn't put a ton of thought into it. (That was kind of the draw for us.) I avoided theater like the plague and while I read a book or two, I mostly watched TV.
Circus Jeff has been: acrobalancing, auditioning, acting, traveling to Italy to learn commedia, and extensively blogging about his artistic work and relationship to same. He has spent a large portion of his free time working towards growth as an artist, and when he was acting, a lot of the time it was in never-before-produced work. He did lots of staged readings too, which is what you do with an infant play before you go back and fix it before staging it.
So it occurs to me that there are two kinds of work: there's the work you're currently working on, and then there's the lifelong work. I think Circus Jeff's time contributing to new works, working in theater, and generally gearing his life to support his art has made a big difference in how he works; he knows the rules, he has the discipline, and he's laid the groundwork to be able to build something relatively quickly. Whereas I've been, erm, watching TV. (In my defense, TV's gotten REALLy good. Truly it is a golden age!)
It's gratifying to know that all that crap you're supposed to do as a life-long artist actually pays off. There's no manual for how to do the crap either. (Well, there are many, none are very useful.) You just have to throw yourself into it and figure it out, which Circus Jeff has done and continues to do.
And uh, lest this seem like TOO much of a Circus-J love-fest, let it be known that he is extremely picky in his eating habits, so living in the food capital of the world is SO wasted on that guy.
He writes about the creative handover better than me in his blargh: www.jeffwills.blogspot.com. I agree with what he says, so go read it. (If you want to.) To sum up: throwing ideas/assignments back and forth is awesome.
Now, it took me like a month to write my story, and I think it's just ok. Circus Jeff wrote his in a few days, and it's great, and I don't lie about that stuff. And, unless there's something he's not telling me, he's kind of in the same place as I am with writing; in other words, neither of us has been consistently working on it much in the last five years or so. So what gives? Why come did I agonize and throw my laptop across the room, and why come did he tear out a supremely awesome first draft?
I would like to think that I did some of the heavy lifting in coming up with the alternate future world, so I had a set of parameters to hand over. However, I also think there's a more complete answer.
Since college, I have been: spending most of my time in an Office Space kind of environment, and the rest playing/singing backup in bands, watching TV with friends and roller skating. The closest I've come to creative work has been songwriting in Cuddle Party (holla, Atomicate!) We did most of that via IM and didn't put a ton of thought into it. (That was kind of the draw for us.) I avoided theater like the plague and while I read a book or two, I mostly watched TV.
Circus Jeff has been: acrobalancing, auditioning, acting, traveling to Italy to learn commedia, and extensively blogging about his artistic work and relationship to same. He has spent a large portion of his free time working towards growth as an artist, and when he was acting, a lot of the time it was in never-before-produced work. He did lots of staged readings too, which is what you do with an infant play before you go back and fix it before staging it.
So it occurs to me that there are two kinds of work: there's the work you're currently working on, and then there's the lifelong work. I think Circus Jeff's time contributing to new works, working in theater, and generally gearing his life to support his art has made a big difference in how he works; he knows the rules, he has the discipline, and he's laid the groundwork to be able to build something relatively quickly. Whereas I've been, erm, watching TV. (In my defense, TV's gotten REALLy good. Truly it is a golden age!)
It's gratifying to know that all that crap you're supposed to do as a life-long artist actually pays off. There's no manual for how to do the crap either. (Well, there are many, none are very useful.) You just have to throw yourself into it and figure it out, which Circus Jeff has done and continues to do.
And uh, lest this seem like TOO much of a Circus-J love-fest, let it be known that he is extremely picky in his eating habits, so living in the food capital of the world is SO wasted on that guy.
posted by walkinhomefromthethriftstore at 9:33 AM
2 Comments:
I'll tell you what's gratifying: Hearing that your life hasn't been wasted from someone who's opinion you unwaveringly admire. Thank you.
I would also venture to suggest that part of the struggle to write for you may have been the pressure of assignment. Mine was, truth be told, pretty elective. Plus I love your world!
I dunno... my assignment was elective too. Possibly I will just always struggle. I struggled less with the second story, so mayhaps it's getting easier.
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