As someone who has and does paint and art-work recreationally,
photographs for recreation and professionally (https://simonbrooksstoryteller.wordpress.com/), played in bands trying
to make a living, as well as making a living as a storyteller currently, I do
these things, these art forms for the love of the art itself. For me, and this is not the same
for everyone I am guessing, a lot of randomness comes about when creating.
All of the following is how I come about an end result. With song and
music, especially working with another, there is a bouncing of ideas,
you play a piece, and one person might go in one direction,which sparks a
random idea in someone else, and so on. With art, I sometimes let the
pen or brush run around and something comes from it, sometimes it does
not. I might make a scribble, or add an element from someone else's work
to see what happens.
With stories, there is much randomness in how I work and present. Some might call it sloppy, but it really isn't. I play around a lot with my tales - having done all the research I want to do (usually way more than I would EVER need). I goof with them. I give the characters body shapes, ways of walking, speaking, how they scratch their face, or lean to one side when talking. I play out scenarios with the characters which are not in the story. I put them in odd, current, and traditional situations, or add another character from another story to see what happens to them all. Sometimes, during a performance, something random will happen, a sound or noise, a distraction, a kids comment, the way an adult is looking at me, someone walks in late and a thought pops into my mind, and I will play off it. I am not trained in improv, I simply goof around. Sometimes an ending might change. Usually not, but it has happened. Sometimes a story that might be 10 minutes long in a 'normal' situation suddenly takes 5 minutes, or 15-20 minutes to tell, because of what is going on around me. It is the way I am. I can be polished and refined, but I love to goof around.
Try finding a copy of Elvis Presley performing in Vegas, doing Suspicious Minds - the movie is called Elvis: That's The Way It Is. He has rehearsed, and practiced, but there is such freedom in what he does, not too choreographed, there is some looseness and randomness - play.
Not everyone does that, or can do that, or maybe more accurately: chooses to do that. Compare Frank Sinatra to Dean Martin, or Elvis! And it is not about drugs or booze, at least for me it's not. It's playfulness. For me it is opening myself up to what might happen. Taking a tale to the edge, holding it over the edge, and then bringing it back - to see what happens, what random things may occur.
For me, it's not the time one spends on writing a song, or album's worth of material, it is not the research which goes into writing (fiction and non-fiction), or the time it takes to put layer upon layer of paint, or paper, or other media together, or the versions we read (or I read) of stories, what research into the culture I do when working on a story, (even if I never use any of it) - it is done for the finished product. I read or hear something, and think about what I can do, what I would add, do differently, to create something new and then work towards it. I hope it will come out, and if it fails, try other tricks, acts of randomness, to see what I need to do to make it better, or to get closer to how I want it, or envisioned it.
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| Bird in bush of blue blobs |
With stories, there is much randomness in how I work and present. Some might call it sloppy, but it really isn't. I play around a lot with my tales - having done all the research I want to do (usually way more than I would EVER need). I goof with them. I give the characters body shapes, ways of walking, speaking, how they scratch their face, or lean to one side when talking. I play out scenarios with the characters which are not in the story. I put them in odd, current, and traditional situations, or add another character from another story to see what happens to them all. Sometimes, during a performance, something random will happen, a sound or noise, a distraction, a kids comment, the way an adult is looking at me, someone walks in late and a thought pops into my mind, and I will play off it. I am not trained in improv, I simply goof around. Sometimes an ending might change. Usually not, but it has happened. Sometimes a story that might be 10 minutes long in a 'normal' situation suddenly takes 5 minutes, or 15-20 minutes to tell, because of what is going on around me. It is the way I am. I can be polished and refined, but I love to goof around.
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| Show at summer camp, 2015 |
Try finding a copy of Elvis Presley performing in Vegas, doing Suspicious Minds - the movie is called Elvis: That's The Way It Is. He has rehearsed, and practiced, but there is such freedom in what he does, not too choreographed, there is some looseness and randomness - play.
Not everyone does that, or can do that, or maybe more accurately: chooses to do that. Compare Frank Sinatra to Dean Martin, or Elvis! And it is not about drugs or booze, at least for me it's not. It's playfulness. For me it is opening myself up to what might happen. Taking a tale to the edge, holding it over the edge, and then bringing it back - to see what happens, what random things may occur.
For me, it's not the time one spends on writing a song, or album's worth of material, it is not the research which goes into writing (fiction and non-fiction), or the time it takes to put layer upon layer of paint, or paper, or other media together, or the versions we read (or I read) of stories, what research into the culture I do when working on a story, (even if I never use any of it) - it is done for the finished product. I read or hear something, and think about what I can do, what I would add, do differently, to create something new and then work towards it. I hope it will come out, and if it fails, try other tricks, acts of randomness, to see what I need to do to make it better, or to get closer to how I want it, or envisioned it.
And sometimes it just happens. But isn't that just totally random too?
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| Same place, this year - 2016! |
Simon
© 2016
