Jerry Salz has a great book called How To Be An Artist. Also The Artists Way is worth getting for sure.
Related posts tagged 'Creativity'
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Related posts tagged 'Creativity'
There was a world of junkies and winos, pool hustlers and prostitutes, women and family screaming inside my head, trying to be heard. The longer I kept them bottled up, the harder they tried to escape.
Often both... some ideas pop in out of nowhere and come easily and almost HAVE to exist... some ideas need love and care and work and attention.
it all comes in seasons and waves. the best we can hope it when we are called on, we are in a creative season! and if we're not, sometimes that panic of a deadline is enough to snap me out of it. but it's all self love. if youre blocked, love youself anyway. it's a better strategy and will make it go away faster than being hard on yourself. take a nap! take a walk! take a drive! watch a movie! it's all writing. just in your subconscious
There is no line that I know in terms of what's "too far," whether that means too sentimental or too ...I don't know, controversial or confessional....a "boundary" is an artificial construct, we have to create boundaries when they involve other people, precisely because it makes empirical something that would otherwise be frustratingly subjective (like that neighbor that just kind of 'feels like' their yard extends into yours, in which case you have to go to city hall and pull out a map with lines on it). In matters of creativity - when you're sitting and writing dialogue by yourself, there's no lines needed because you're not having to function in cooperation, your job in creation, I think,...
sure, i think it naturally boxes me in. One fun thing is to always try to working outside of boxes though... and i think people have gotten a little too concerened about things like genres and labels. I'm hoping this record is additive to my body of work and makes me a more interesting person to pay attention to.
Self-expression is a hallmark of an artist, of art, to get something off one’s chest, to sing one’s song. So that element is present in all art. And comedy, although it is not one of the fine arts—it’s a vulgar art, it’s one of the people’s arts, it’s the spoken word, the writing that goes into it is an art form—it’s certainly artistry. So self-expression is the key to even standing up and saying, "Hey, listen to me." Self-expression can be based on looking at the world and making observations about it or not. Comedy can also be based on describing one’s inner self—doing anecdotes, talking about your own fears. Woody Allen taps into a lot of self-analysis in his comedy. But I don’t think the...
creatively you use all the same tools. you tend to steer towards people you like being around... you try to make it the best thing possible given your restraints... i guess framing it for people is the most challenging part
If you ask yourself, `Is there anything I can do to get a laugh?’ you can find a lot of things.
And usually they’re things that other people have found. But if you take something that’s never going to work and you go, `Wow, I wonder if there’s any way I can get somebody to laugh at this?’ it’s a great challenge.
I think everyone gets tired of who they are, or their own brains sometimes. I think the important thing is to keep pushing through into unexplored territories - new ways to express ideas or new jokes. that's when I feel really good- hitting on something new.
[In reply to Louis CK, who was leading a discussion about the importance of maintaining a physical training routine and its relation to comedy]
Louis,
I concur that poor health leads to sloth and effects your creativity.
Repeating any behavior continually will effect your writing as it gives
you nothing new to say. I do drugs, yes I do but I only do them socially. Its the fact that I
talk openly about it that gives the impression that there is a
frequency. I’ve probably done mushrooms 6 times this year, acid once
(poor quality), coke maybe 5 or 6 times, and about three xanax a week
to sleep. I dont smoke pot.
So smokes and drink are about my only habits and the cigarettes
certainly n...
Related posts tagged 'Favorite books'
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Related posts tagged 'Favorite books'
The Nixon Tapes: 1973 Ed. by Douglas Brinkley & Luke Nichter
Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
Just reading Tiffany Haddish's LAST BLACK UNICORN- beautifully written and hilarious. I love memoir- so, Mary Karr. Graphic Memoir- Allison Bechdel (sp?) Fun Home and "Marbles" by Ellen Forney. Madness by Marya Hornbacher, anything by Kay Redfield Jamison. I also like For Dummies- Personal Finance for and Bipolar Disorder for.
My 5 favorite books of 2020:
Antkind by Charlie Kaufman
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
Little Eyes by Samantha Schweblin
Weather by Jenny Offill
The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel
I will always put "Here Comes Snoopy" by Charles Schulz first because my dad gave it to me when I was seven and I stayed up all night reading it and it was the first book that made me laugh out loud
The Nixon Tapes: 1973 Ed. by Douglas Brinkley & Luke Nichter
I watched the Watergate hearings while I was a boy in Canada. They said Nixon was the ultimate politician, but no: He was stiff, he’d sweat, he was human, a tragic figure who got caught up in his own insecurities. My favorite part [in these tapes] is the banality: Nixon talks about his mother-in-law making this pie he f—–g hates, and all these guys going, “Yessir!”
Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell
I love oral histories. Mitchell was a New Yorker writer who’d go around a city and write about interesting people he’d met, from the mayor to the lowest bum. He was probably the first to do New Journalism, [before] Gay Talese. Hi...
Right now, I'm reading a book called THE PEACE TO END ALL PEACE, by David Fromkin, which is a very thick book, about how the Middle East came to be, and why the Middle East is the way it is today. It's a very, very good and important piece of historical work.
Another very important book to read, which I'm re-reading, is called WHY NATIONS FAIL.
There are two books everyone should read: one is GUNS, GERMS & STEEL and the other is the rebuttal to that book, which is WHY NATIONS FAIL. Which will give you an understanding of why some nations are prosperous, while others are not. It's a very important book.
Well if you really want to read Russian novelists, you should learn to speak Russian, that's the best way. But if you don't want to do that, there are wonderful translators, a husband & wife team by the name of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, they are the greats. So even if you've already read Russian literature, you should reread. I would begin with a book of Tolstoy short stories, there's a book called the Death of Ivan Ilovitch and other stories, which is a jumping off point. And not ironically at all but it's very funny writing.
1. Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov.
2. Sabbath's Theater, by Philip Roth.
3. Candy, by Terry Southern & Mason Hoffenberg.
4. Mating, by Norman Rush.
Chester Himes! Thomas Pynchon (obviosuly) john o'hara..John Steinbeck...George Orwell....Shirley Jackson! Caroline Blackwood
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