The Power of Observational Thought

So I've said multiple times that this blog is to do with the Arts (theatre, writing, film, music) aswell as a bit of sentiment (seemingly a lot) so it's no surprise that this specific post is going to meld the two into a hopefully understandable mixture. The other day at University in my creative writing class we had been told to create a PowerPoint Presentation that showed our influences, to explore the power of influence and to see just how creatively effected we are by the mentioned people or things. I mentioned briefly Charles Dickens, specifically 'Hard Times', Patrick Suskind and his book 'Perfume' Jane Austen and 'Emma' and Emily Bronte 'Wuthering Heights. Those were the books that have quite a profound effect on me, in the classic sense, but with a more contemporary feeling and for me on the most personal level I spoke about John Green (The Fault In Our Stars, Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns etc) Nicholas Sparks (Dear John, The Notebook, The Guardian, Message in a Bottle, Safe Haven etc) and on a more cinematic level Frank Capra and my favourite film of all time; It's A Wonderful Life. Those are truly my greatest influences but I felt that I needed to add in an admittedly cheesy aspect, but one that truly is my all time most important influence; and that's life, and observations. Before I got really into wanting writing and film as a career rather than a hobby I really enjoyed photography, and I used to take pictures of the world around me, and when you do that you realise things that you don't notice the first time. When you're sad or low, you tend to notice these things aswell, because you're looking for something to let you escape and make you happy, and find these small wonderful elements of life that normally would be overlooked, and they are fantastic influences. Small little things in this life that could quite easily be a catalyst for a piece of prose or poetry; the closing of an eye in sleep, the one bright leaf laying amongst hundreds of discoloured autumnal leaves. And its powerful, its an incredible sentimental and emotional thing, there's a connection you can feel to small objects within a larger universe, because essentially that's what us as humans are, and if one day a human can notice a leaf; something they are surrounded by and find beauty in it, then that leaves hope. If we can find beauty in something we see everywhere everyday, then surely we can find beauty in ourselves and our friends, and our lives, and our family. Yet it's a thing that not that many people seem to do; to just notice life. But it's one of those things that more people really should do, Observational Thought is a power to be reckoned with.

Shorts to Novels; Belief in the Creative Flow

As I approach the halfway mark in my Novel I've started to become a little more relaxed and positive about trusting the 'Creative Flow'. This Novel has been in development from the very first conceptual process to actually putting every bit of planning into writing it for at least 14 months. During those 14 months character profiles, brief timelines, back-stories have been changed quite dramatically, and as I've been writing it I've found myself concentrating TOO hard in order to make sure all the planning is executed correctly. Yes, there is such a thing as concentrating TOO hard, of course there is. With my writing I've been guilty of doing it before, but sometimes you have the idea and you plan it then when it comes to writing you get sucked into this worry that it wont be good enough, or that the genre wont be right, or that this wont go right so you try to mould it as much as possible. That cut's out the belief in 'creative flow'. When I say Creative Flow what I mean is the self-belief that you've thought of a good story and will thus write a good story. You have to give yourself the freedom to then go ahead and write it, write it being aware of what you're writing... but to an extent. There's no way that any writer will allow himself to write a poem/short story/epic/saga/novel without reading through it and editing about a million times. So the way I look at it is that you should write it, change things if you feel they desperately need it or they don't work with other bits, but ultimately trust yourself to finish it first, and then go back read it and edit it with a fine tooth comb. Writing is a fun thing to do, if you go through the whole process worrying and be over-critical before you've finished then you're completely changing the happiness and wonder of the process.

Perfecting the Craft

Now although calling something a 'craft' can often sound pretentious, it's still a pretty accurate word for what it is. Anything that one is good at, and that one practices in order to follow it as a career is their craft. With writing, there are very specific instructions as to how to perfect it....Write, Read, Have others read. Simple. Every book/author out there will say that you have to write as much as you can, you have to get others to read your work along with reading lots of books and getting inspiration etc etc So that's my main aim this year; to write a LOT more. As much as I love writing, since around the age of 8 I've written small things, or had a real difficulty finishing the stories, but thats improved as I've got older, naturally! But I still don't think I've written enough to properly understand my style of writing in order to make it better (its possible no-one ever does).

I'm writing Rediscovering Clarity; my novel still,but I want to make sure that is written in the best way possible so I'm taken breaks to write short stories (what I've been used to) and to write multiple different ones to develop a more distinguished style and to incorporate the work ethic element to writing.

Write.Write.Write.

Depression Testimonials/Interviews

Hi, as my previous post shows I'm making a Documentary on depression, and I'm basically asking for anyone who has suffered or knows someone who has suffered to come forward, anonymously or otherwise and answer some of my questions over email. In fact anyone who would be interested in lending their opinion and answers can contact me at ltxavi@outlook.com. It would be much appreciated. Thanks

Film Assignment Preparation

So here I am in the 2nd year and generally speaking, I'm off to a good start, I'm doing quite a bit of what you would call 'extra-curricular' writing back in college days and I'm having a good time again. The pressure of the first assignment however is looming, and we have to start pretty soon to get the most time! The task itself is to create a documentary between 8 and 12 minutes and its due in at the end of this term, which if I'm not mistaken is just under 3 months now. However, the documentary I'm planning to do is an investigative one into depression, the psychological and scientific effects of it, the personal ones told by sufferers and the perception of it within the general public sphere. There are so many elements to this and a few complexities, along with personal connections to the condition so I really need to be prepared for this project. It's a project that I believe has the potential to be great, and possibly one of the best and personally pride filling things I've done so far, but having that pressure and knowing the possible emotional stress caused by it makes it even more daunting. Preparation for any film is needed, it's stressful I wont lie. The preconceptions of a film course, and the process in general is that its easy and you watch films for inspiration, the latter is partially true but it is not easy. Emotionally its demanding and stressful, and physically tiring at times, but the end product, if its good makes everything worth it and the love of film makes everything you do fascinating and thrilling. So I am excited for this next project, especially because it means so much to me and I know my passion for making this condition more public as a CONDITION and not a selfish means of attention seeking will come across in the film, but it definitely requires even more careful thought and preparation. Never give up, people.

Shorts to Novels; Musical Accompaniments.

No matter what kind of writing you do, fictional or otherwise the question of what 'noises' to have around has long been debated. Some people believe that pure silence is the best thing to give someone's mind complete space to reach its full ability, but then some people who aren't comfortable with silence prefer music, some more instrumental, others more lyrical. But what is the best? Well, quite simply there is no 'best' because writing is an incredibly personal thing to do, people are vastly different, and although there is always something similar in everyone when it comes to this sort of thing it can truly differ, and most probably always will. That's the way it should be aswell.

However, for me, as a person who doesn't really work too well in silence I have to have music but when it comes to the argument of lyrics or instrumental I kind of sit on the fence. Depending on what kind of mood I'm in, or what kind of genre I'm writing depends what I listen to. Generally I listen to slow soft acoustic songs from artists like Gabrielle Aplin, James Morrison, Joshua Radin, Norah Jones etc. These kind of songs relax me very easily and get rid of any stress I have, and obviously stress is a high creativity-blocker. I also find sometimes the slightest lyric in a song might spark an idea in my head for whatever reason. If I'm writing a particular intense scene full of action or horror though I listen to heavier rock like Thirty Seconds To Mars, Linkin Park, Emarosa, The Fray etc so that the faster speed, and inclusion of a heavier percussion puts me in the appropriate mood for the scene.

Lastly, for emotional scenes again I might just use the acoustic songs, but sometimes I find instrumentals help just as much, because when I write a particularly sad or poignant scene I like to imagine the kind of cinematic trope of complete silence except the characters and faded music. These kind of film scenes really engage the audience and effect their emotions, so if I can listen to music that coincides with this kind of scene I feel like I will produce a much more worthy piece of writing.

But as I said at the beginning everyone differs, this is merely what I do.

Approaching the Second Year: 12 days to go

Over a year ago I started this blog to document my entrance into Uni, and to write about any tips or experiences I encounter. Now 47 posts later the summers coming to an end, I once again realise the incredible changes that can occur over a year and in 12 days my bags will be packed ready to move into my new house to start the second year of University. So naturally I feel the need to re-cap, and talk about how I feel about the second year etc.

My first year was an experience full of MANY emotions, lots of stressing and best of all, new friends, old friends, wonder and personal development. Yes emotions did run extremely strong throughout the first year, emotions that I truly never knew existed, people react and deal with different things in completely different ways but for me settling in was quite difficult. I was a partial recluse at the beginning of my journey, because I was already feeling quite emotional before I had joined Uni for varying reasons, so being placed in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people was quite a strange occurrence. But soon enough I began to warm to the lovely people I was living with, and I decided the feeling of discomfort I had was a good thing, because it forced me to be more open-minded and willing to do things. Once I had this view in my mind adapting to student life, the night's and all became easier, and I truly and thoroughly enjoyed so many aspects of it. There were friendships that were being made stronger and stronger by the day at Uni. It is such a wonderful feeling to think that just a year ago I never knew any of the University friends I have now, and yet I've become so close to some of them. When I came back for the summer holidays 4 months ago, I honestly felt like a large part of me had changed, I'd lost weight, I had a better view on trust, I felt like I could talk to people easier and I felt better about myself in general.

Considering that is the tiniest snippet of my first year, it makes me feel so positive about going back now. Originally the idea of returning felt a little scary because I'd been home so long, and I'd made new friends, and had some of the most fantastic times, however simplistic they were. But remembering everything that happened and knowing that any problems in my mind that exist will be so much easier to deal with in, what is effectively my 'second life' is such an exciting thought. I finished my first year with a 2:1 and I was so utterly ecstatic when I found out, so that made me even more motivated to finish this next year with a First. I think that's quite an important part of uni...the future, you have to keep thinking about it, and what opportunities might arrive, who you might meet, what could change because that unpredictability begins to make 'the unknown' a little less daunting.