Approaching Another Finish (and Starting) Line

Doing the Post-A-Day thing this year has been tremendously satisfying. I’m also glad that I’m almost done with it. Its relentlessness is a two-edged sword, and I’m looking forward to stepping away from the Damocles role for a little while. I’d been looking around for a similar thing to do in 2012, something to push me creatively in a way that I wouldn’t push myself otherwise. Then I found this, which seems to fit the bill perfectly.

I’d already been thinking about doing the picture-a-day thing, but I wasn’t sure that was enough by itself. The rest of the list would definitely push me in new and not unpleasant directions. And I was able to commission a lovely scrapbook for this from Sara Hindmarch, so what’s not to like?

So while I might not be posting as frequently here when 2011 ends, you’ll still have something to look forward to.

Sign Me Up for Alchemy

Fred Hicks asks:

What’s your take on the balance between the single cohesive vision of a sole creator vs. the alchemical value of collaboration? Where does each approach break down for you, and how do you think it should be addressed?

This is a tricky one, particularly because of how bound up in perspective and interpretation it is. I’m working on a novel right now. If I tell someone about it and incorporate a suggestion they make, am I still following a single vision? I’m also writing it over an extended period of time. When I finish the final chapter, my understanding of the story is going to be very different than when I started it, months before. In what sense is my vision cohesive?

It should be fairly obvious that I’m going to come down on the side of collaboration, because that’s how I see the world. If there’s more than one person involved in a project, there’s going to be some amount of collaboration. I see even projects that I work on “by myself” as collaborative; it’s only a question of degree. I don’t know what a non-collaborative process looks like. I suppose that if you locked yourself away and created something in isolation, in a very short period of time, without ever telling anyone else about it, then that would qualify.

Now, to really address Fred’s question I should talk about how it’s really a sliding scale, so I will. I believe that effective collaboration leads to more innovative results. The more you collaborate, the more creative the outcome. It’s also likely to take more time and effort. So the real balancing act is between how much time you have and how good you need the result to be.

Notice that I said effective collaboration. Many “collaborations” are really one or two people telling the others what to do, which is coordination at best. These sorts of projects are where you’re likely to run into problems of competing individual visions, which results in something neither cohesive nor alchemical. To effectively collaborate, the people involved have to develop a mutual understanding, fully participate in the process, seek inclusive solutions, and take shared responsibility. Doing these things is what takes both time and commitment. It’s also what creates that alchemical value that I believe so much in.

Update

Fitness: Biked 8.25 miles
Writing: 270 words, 265 average

Link Roundup for 19 March 2011

Here’s some assembled wisdom on writing and the creative process that I’ve come across recently. Behold the irony of linking to stuff about writing in place of actually writing something!¹

• Jamie Wallace shares seven steps to better writing habits.
• Jeff Atwood confesses that Stack Overflow exists to trick programmers into writing.
• Daniel Solis describes the dichotomy he sees between creativity and productivity.
• Michael Hyatt discusses the anatomy of an effective blog post.
• Christine Fonseca elaborates on the importance of perseverance for writers.

¹ I did actually write today. It’s just that none of it is quite ready to post yet.

Can I Get Some Gets?

Tell me what to do. I am your blogmonkey.

In improv, we’ll often start a scene by asking for something from the audience.¹ Why? One reason is so they know we’re actually improvising, rather than working from a script or from pre-rehearsed bits. The better reason is to prompt our creativity, to push ourselves outside of our heads and our normal boxes.

This is basically what I did with Becky during our first Fourth Friday Challenge. That was successful enough that (1) we’re going to do it again, and (2) I want to widen it. This is where you, faithful reader, come in.

Either in the comments to this post or using the form on the About page, give me some writing prompts. It could a be question, a topic, a restriction — anything that I can use to mix things up a bit. I’ll toss these into my blogging ideas file and use them to fuel future posts. Sound good?

So, can I get…

¹ In techincal terms, it’s a called a “get,” which leads to fun sentences like, “What kind of get to you want to get?”

Making Art at a Distance

I love what I get paid to do. At the office, I get to work closely with people, as part of a team, to build something together. We’re interdependent, because none of us can build the product alone, so we have to trust each other. We can’t just each build our separate piece and hope they fit together at the end. We have to communicate and collaborate on a daily basis in order to succeed. I love working to make this environment even better for what we need to do, and I love that I have to do that with other people. What I’m doing in my job right now is making me a better person.

I also love making art with people. As creative as what we build at work is, it’s not the same as a making a book, a game, a podcast, a YouTube video, a movie. I can’t point to our software and say, “Look at this art that we made.” It may be true, but it’s not as true as it is for other things. And as much as a love things like improv and roleplaying, creative activities whose products are ultimately ephemeral, I still occasionally feel the need to be left with something tangible that we made.

I want to find a way to unite these two loves. Most the people who I have made art with or want to make art with don’t live anywhere near me.¹ And what I love about work is that the collaborative process is happening in real time. There’s just so much lost when that immediacy goes away.

How about you? How do you make art with people don’t see on a daily basis? How do you keep the collaboration going?

¹ Not mention that I can’t afford to do them full time.