The Finish Line: What It’s Like to See It to the End

[ASIDE: I’m sorry for a lack of visuals again guys. WordPress isn’t letting me upload anything now. Been this way for months without any solutions. I’ll try next time…]

Throughout the past months, I wrote and self-published a book about my experiences in Winnipeg bands. Each step of the project took a long time to plan and execute.

First, the project itself—what was I going to write about? How will it be structured? How long will it take to do each step? It took weeks to have a short synopsis of the book, and then each chapter.

Next, budgeting for time and money. I was still in school as I worked on the project, and I’m not rich. It took more planning to make the project realistic and doable.

Then, the actual writing. The whole book is roughly 17,500 words, which isn’t a lot for a book. But each time I would tackle a chapter, I would write out an idea, then scrap it, then write another, then scrap that one, then settle on a part that didn’t make me feel sick to write.

After the writing was done, the editing began. I underestimated how much time I was going to spend editing—it turns out I spent way more time editing than writing the initial content. Probably twice as much time, actually.

So then, I contacted local publishers. I self-published, but some publishers help lay out the book, plus some design covers, get an ISBN for you, and other book-related things that are easy to overlook.

Once I settled on a publisher, I booked a venue so I could host a book launch. I contacted a few different places, and chose the one based off my needs since I planned to play music at my launch.

Then, I contacted the band members and we chose some songs and practiced for a few weeks, rented equipment, and set up at the venue. On my side of things, I made up some merchandise for the launch—t-shirts, guitar picks, and posters. This happened, of course, after contacting a bunch of places and working out the best prices and timing for each item.

Then, the actual event came, and I met with everyone who was generous enough to stop by and pick up a copy of my book as well as some merch. I played the set with the band, and afterwards, tore down the stage, cleaned up, and returned the rented equipment to the store.

But, after everything, it’s done. There are printed copies of my project on my desk. I can flip through and actually hold something that I created. It’s like having a baby, except it’s nothing like having a baby. It’s not easy, though.

Anyone wanna buy a book?

Summing Up Creativity with Digital Synopsis

I’ve briefly talked about the wonderful portfolio website, Behance, in the past. It’s great to sort through interesting, hypothetical work for inspiration. It’s actually amazing to see how someone who chose to change the font of, for example, McDonald’s copy, can totally change the feel of the promotion.

I’ve actually found the holy grail of what my blog is aiming to achieve: a website called Digital Synopsis—an advertising, design, and creative hub. From ad campaigns to inspirational posts, this website is possibly one of the best tools for helping escape stagnation. Although the site is smaller, it’s still full of useful content. Have a look if you can spare a few minutes.

Funny Thoughts: How Comedy and Creativity are Connected

I did stand-up comedy onstage this week. It was nerve-wracking and amazing. But going up on stage is half the battle—the other half is writing jokes.

Comedy is a creative outlet, and, if I say so, it’s one of the better creative outlets.

First, what is comedy? What makes something funny? Humour is about the unexpected. You don’t expect the punchline to the best jokes. You hear the set-up to a joke, and you don’t know where it’s about to go. Comedy is about catching someone off guard, or surprising them with something they weren’t expecting.

So how does this tie in with creativity, or inspiration? It comes to thinking outside the box. It’s about taking something just a bit further and pushing a thought or observation until it walks the line between truth and half-truth.

Any great idea starts off as something that stands out in your mind, even if it’s just slightly noteworthy. But something stands out, and you want to act on it. Maybe that idea becomes a book, a song, an invention, a dessert, or a joke. But it doesn’t start that way. Everything needs to be polished and worked until the result reflects the awesomeness that you hoped to achieve.

Here’s a clip from my friend and classmate, Tyler Penner. He’s one of the best comedians I’ve ever seen. He did a solid 10 minutes of pure gold on Monday. I went to see the Just For Laughs show at The Centennial this Wednesday, and it was disappointing because Tyler set the bar so high on Monday evening.

Exploring Reality with Salvador Dalí

So I went to see Dalí’s exhibit at the Winnipeg Art Gallery this weekend. Salvador “Melting Clocks” Dalí is famous for his surrealist style, which essentially means he painted things doing things they shouldn’t be doing.

This is probably normal.

Dalí had his signature style—his own flair that became his identity on the canvas. But how did he find that style? How did he find this rare and precious way of creating?

Dalí had his own way of finding inspiration and creativity. It came to be known as the paranoiac-critical method. This method combines elements of psychology with surrealist techniques.

It was, simply put, a way to look past what was right in front of you and see what your subconscious sees. It’s a way of seeing something in a different way, but without really changing your environment. It’s almost like coming to terms with what you really, REALLY see when you look at something. Not the literal, but the part that you ignore when your brain picks up on an element that has a specific meaning to you.

What does this have to do with creating, or inspiration? Almost everything.

It’s our subjective viewpoints that give us our own voices in our works. Comedians make observations from their points of view. Artists paint from their viewpoint. Filmmakers shoot from their perspectives. It’s all about what we see that others don’t, or noticing what they miss, or pointing out what no one else wants to say.

It’s what makes us different from each other. Dalí was just a bit more different, I guess.

Couldn’t resist getting this after the exhibit.

They’re Out There: Where the Best Ideas are Hiding

One thing that bothers me about the advertising industry is that many creatives look into the industry for inspiration. Personally, I can’t imagine trying to come up with the “next big thing” by looking at work that’s already been done.

Of course, looking into the industry has its advantages, such as knowing what’s already been done and which major trends are dominating. But I wouldn’t look inward for inspiration; I’d do it to avoid accidentally recycling another person’s concept.

Cue Maria Popova.

She’s a major-league blogger and creative champion. After working years in the ad industry in the USA, she realized that too many creatives were searching for ideas inside the industry. That’s when she got the idea to create a newsletter about various interesting topics for the office. She wrote about anything that interested her, and excluded content from the industry. The newsletter became a hit.

It wasn’t long afterward that she started her own website. Brainpickings.org grew organically overtime and became a daily source of inspiration for me. There is a ton of content that has nothing to do with the ad industry, such as psychology, philosophy, and history, but it still focuses on creativity and inspiration.

When asked what the best advice she ever received was, she stated:

“Go the fuck to sleep.”

That’s coming from a woman who reads 12 to 15 books per week and hundreds of bits of online content daily!

So if you’re struggling with an idea, or you’ve got writer’s block, remember that the whole world can help you find the right idea, so keep searching. And don’t forget to check in the spots you haven’t yet searched. Oh, and maybe get some sleep.

Creative Spices

For me, sitting around and waiting for ideas to show up doesn’t work. I have to do something that promotes creative thinking. One of my favourite ways to do that is by cooking.

One of my creative workspaces.

I love cooking. I started cooking last summer and it’s changed the way I think about food. I no longer buy completed meals from restaurants now. I search for recipes, I find fresh ingredients, I use certain tools, and I create. It’s exactly like any other form of creativity. This one’s a bit tastier, though.

So tasty.

Cooking includes a process towards which I’ve grown fond: Preparation. Peeling potatoes, chopping carrots, trimming meat, mixing spices, kneading dough… it’s the perfect length of monotonous action that allows my mind to wind down a bit, then to step away.

This “stepping away”— thinking about work, remembering what your friends talked about, wondering what’s happening Saturday afternoon—this is the right amount of time my mind needs to sort everything out. It clears out the clutter, and keeps my hands busy. And, with that, ideas start showing up for me.

Cooking permits people to follow a recipe or create something completely on their own (and at their own risk and potential dismay). But either way, it puts my mind in the right place to explore and incubate thoughts. With a bit of luck, those thoughts become ideas. Concepts. Stories. Even jokes, if I’m in the right mood.

Cooking itself is a creative outlet, and cooking promotes creative thought.  And because of it, I won’t let anyone cheat me out of that process.

Homemade guacamole is better anyway.