Creative Process

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CRW 305; Dr. M. Gaskill 763-9512 or by appointment

gaskillm@uncwil.edu

 

Art as “successive crystallizations of the dream”

-         - Picasso

 

Appetizers

An honest exploration of the creative process has to acknowledge how mysterious creativity really is. What, for example, could possibly possess Charles Darwin to put live beetles in his mouth when he was a young boy? Why did Michelangelo smash his own sculptures? And why, at the height of her poetry success, did Sylvia Plath hide in the crawl space under the porch of her mother’s house?

 

This course focuses on developing your own creativity in writing. While the creative process is obviously as unique as each person’s own passionate life energy, there does seem to be certain guideposts for developing one’s full creative potential. We will explore those guideposts along with the creative blocks most commonly encountered. Along the way, we will be considering all of the fine arts, reading a variety of authors and artists as to what each has to say about their own process, hearing from guest speakers, participating in various creativity-building and creative writing exercises, investigating the relationship between creativity and madness, and examining personal writing blocks.

 

 Main Entrees

There are two main parts to the creative process: expanding creative vision and developing well-crafted products. Our course will examine 12 key principles of the creative process along with “common blocks” found in each:

 

The Creative Process: Combining Elements of Vision and Craft

 

Vision

 

Principle                             Applied to Writing                                Creative Block

 

1. Passion                                        falling in love with what you do                             fear of feeling; being fully

                                                                                                                                        alive in the world

2.The Willingness                           recovering voice                                                      fear of failure; fear of

    To Be Different                                                                                                          losing security

3.Listening Deeply                         following imagery, reflections                                 discomfort with the inner

                                                                                                                                        life; fear of aloneness

4.Incubation                                    reclaiming personal space                                       discomfort with

                                                                                                                                        uncertainty; trusting the

                                                                                                                                        natural cycles

5.Flexible Thinking                         generating possibilities, analogies                           rigid expectations; fear of

                                                                                                                                        imperfection

6.Relishing Mystery

        and Sacredness                        exploring the fullness of voice                                fear of surrender

Craft

 

 

7.Uninhibited Expression               identifying talents & limits                                     fear of success; fear of

                                                                                                                                        being seen

8.Directing Energy                          developing flexible habits                                        ego; overcontrol vs. out of

                                                                                                                                        control; addictions and

                                                                                                                                        madness; style of personal

                                                                                                                                        defenses; transforming

                                                                                                                                        personal dramas

9.Intergrity                                      faithfulness to self, audience                                   fear of truth;

                                                        & work                                                                    over idealism; the lure of

                                                                                                                                        extrinsic reward

10.Identity                                      artists, prodigies, & madmen                                  fear of calling; selective

                                                                                                                                        workshopping; fear of

                                                                                                                                        conformity

11.Persistence                                 the “tireless compulsion to                                     lack of focus and

                                                        write”                                                                      commitment; the not

                                                                                                                                        enough time excuse

12.Expertise                                    cultivating themes & templates                              fear of transcendence &

                                                                                                                                        mastery; understanding

                                                                                                                                        society, history,

                                                                                                                                        archetypes & innovation

 

Price of Entrees

(requirements)

 

Attendance and Participation. Classes will emphasize creativity-building and creative writing exercises along with group discussion. Therefore, regular participation and attendance is mandatory. More than two “unexcused” absence will adversely affect your grade by one half letter grade for each absence. Please notify me immediately regarding emergencies or illness. Should you need to miss a class, please make arrangements with a fellow student to obtain any information and assignments missed so that you will be prepared for the following class.

 

Required Readings. 

 

Ghiselin, Brewster, Ed., The Creative Process: Reflections on

      Invention in the Arts and Sciences. Los Angeles: University of California Press,

      1985.

Panter, Barry M., Ed., Creativity and Madness:  Psychological Studies of Art and Artists.

      Burbank, CA:  Aimed Press, 1995.

 

Portfolio Journal / Writing Samples. You will be required to keep a single self-contained Portfolio Journal throughout the semester. The journal contains 1) ongoing personal insights and discoveries about your creative process, along with your reactions to assigned readings; 2) ongoing in-class or out-of-class exercises that will be assigned as we go;  

3) ongoing revision / experiment with various brief writing samples.  You will need a minimum of three or four different excerpts (which can be taken from several or a single larger writing sample).  Each excerpt should be extremely brief (a single paragraph of fiction / nonfiction or a stanza of poetry or the equivalent of a paragraph of screenplay dialogue).  You will be continuously applying various new course ideas to your samples in mini-experiments.  These "experiments" don't have to improve your samples in the way that "revision" normally implies.  They may or may not improve your writing in the short term..  Hopefully though, giving yourself the creative freedom to experiment in these ways will eventually improve your overall work.

 

In the second week of the course, you will be asked to submit to me a couple of your (paragraph length) starting samples along with a one page Introductory Description of your own process.  Your Introductory Description should include the following:  1) your main area of creative expression (i.e. fiction, poetry, dance, music, etc.); 2) other areas of creative talent and / or training that you possess; 3) your main goal as a creative artist; 4) what you perceive to be your greatest personal  / creative blocks in your work and 5) a brief description of your own unique process or style of creating. The Introductory Description is primarily for me to use in order to help me further tailor the course to help you.

 

It is recommended that for your Portfolio Journal you use a spiral notebook or some other convenient binder in which papers and assignments can be added or removed. Please bring these with you to each class as we will sometimes need to reference past assignments in class. I will collect your portfolios once midsemester so that I can give you some preliminary feedback and then once again at the end of the semester for review and grading. Take extreme care with these portfolios, since it is the main basis for your grade.

 

Dessert

(your grade, of course)

 

As an academic seminar, this creative process course is designed to improve your writing and overall creative potential. Your grade is based on your attendance / participation in the exercises, discussion of readings, portfolio journal writing, and also on how well you can apply the course information in your experimentation with your writing samples. A’s are reserved only for the most thoughtful and rigorous journals and rewrites, along with excellent class attendance and participation. Grading is not based on either how creative you are or how good your writing is relative to other creative artists or fellow students. Your own improvement and involvement in the process is all that really matters here.

 

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