The Doors Of Perception
A journal by Sean Fogarty
Ok so except for the Terminator robots posing as humans to hunt us down and kill us we're all human right? And we're all creative in certain ways right? Sure we are. Even those of us who don't think we're creative are creative somehow. Take my friend Lisa. She is an outstanding photographer. She really has an eye for things in the camera. Her pictures resonate with a deepness that goes beyond the collection of the actual objects that compose the photograph. Creativity. Lisa expresses it with her photography. Another friend of mine writes lyrics. She takes all the emotional junk that's in her life and pours it out into her lyrics. Thats her creative outlet. Another friend of mine (nameless here forevermore
) can come up with the most clever and interesting ways to curse. Double fuckahell, asscunt and jackfuck are all some examples of how he uses the curse word to form lurid poetry. The point here is that we all have doors that lead to our creative sides, and these doors need keys. What is the key to Lisa's creativity? Seeing something interesting she wants to photograph. My other friend's key (nameless here forevermore {I liked this terrible joke so much I put it in here twice }) is usually a delay in line at the Wah, a bad game of pool or a stubbed toe. When things go wrong for him that creative door opens up inside his head and the profanities flow out of his mouth like liquid sunshine.
The key to my creative energies is Stephen King. No not in that sick, "manly love" kind of way. Get your damn minds out of the gutter..........
perverts.
But in a good way. Reading a Stephen King novel gets my brain workin. The little hamster in my head starts to run, the wheel starts to turn and the whole creative machine lurches into motion. For the last two and a half months, I had reached a point of creative stagnation. The reason for this (and I believe this one hundred percent, you'll never convince me otherwise) was due to reading bad books and horrible books. The bad ones were some cheesy fantasy novels that I guiltily obsess over (the sword of truth series by Terry Goodkind the only fantasy series that I really enjoy). The horrible ones were "Valley of the Dolls" and "Outlander". When I'm reading something good, it takes me a couple of days to finish a book or a week if it's really long or I'm really busy. The worse the book is, the longer it takes me to read it though. These books took me a month and a half. A MONTH AND A HALF. This may sound like a really fast paced reading for you but for me that's eons. Why did I keep reading them if I hated them so much? I could never tell you. When I start to read a book and the first few chapters aren't good I say to myself "{don't worry, it will get better, just stick it out a few more chapters" then when I'm almost halfway done I say "usually books pick up around the midway point, that's when the action really starts". Then when I'm past the halfway mark it's "well I've already read half, I might as well finish it". After that I consider it a personal battle between me and that book and I'll be damned before I let a pound or so of dead wood beat me. I suffer through every terrible page towards the end (and I've noticed that bad books get even worse towards the end) just to spite the book. I roll my eyes at it and make derisive, sarcastic comments about it. "Gee, the hero magically appears in the window. WHAT AN ORIGINAL IDEA. You must be SO proud of yourself Outlander." I take the books silence as meek surrender.
When the book is good though, it takes control of ME. Stephen King has written some really really good books. Others were so-so. A few were so bad they actually degrade the value of the paper they're printed on. They always open that creative door though, and that's why I love them. Last night I wrote two pages. The night before I wrote another two. This morning I wrote one before work, and I'm about to start on another one or two. If I keep this pace, I'll finish my novel before the end of the month. So Steve, if you're out there, thanks. You wrote some damn good yarns.
A journal by Sean Fogarty
Ok so except for the Terminator robots posing as humans to hunt us down and kill us we're all human right? And we're all creative in certain ways right? Sure we are. Even those of us who don't think we're creative are creative somehow. Take my friend Lisa. She is an outstanding photographer. She really has an eye for things in the camera. Her pictures resonate with a deepness that goes beyond the collection of the actual objects that compose the photograph. Creativity. Lisa expresses it with her photography. Another friend of mine writes lyrics. She takes all the emotional junk that's in her life and pours it out into her lyrics. Thats her creative outlet. Another friend of mine (nameless here forevermore
) can come up with the most clever and interesting ways to curse. Double fuckahell, asscunt and jackfuck are all some examples of how he uses the curse word to form lurid poetry. The point here is that we all have doors that lead to our creative sides, and these doors need keys. What is the key to Lisa's creativity? Seeing something interesting she wants to photograph. My other friend's key (nameless here forevermore {I liked this terrible joke so much I put it in here twice }) is usually a delay in line at the Wah, a bad game of pool or a stubbed toe. When things go wrong for him that creative door opens up inside his head and the profanities flow out of his mouth like liquid sunshine.
The key to my creative energies is Stephen King. No not in that sick, "manly love" kind of way. Get your damn minds out of the gutter..........
perverts.
But in a good way. Reading a Stephen King novel gets my brain workin. The little hamster in my head starts to run, the wheel starts to turn and the whole creative machine lurches into motion. For the last two and a half months, I had reached a point of creative stagnation. The reason for this (and I believe this one hundred percent, you'll never convince me otherwise) was due to reading bad books and horrible books. The bad ones were some cheesy fantasy novels that I guiltily obsess over (the sword of truth series by Terry Goodkind the only fantasy series that I really enjoy). The horrible ones were "Valley of the Dolls" and "Outlander". When I'm reading something good, it takes me a couple of days to finish a book or a week if it's really long or I'm really busy. The worse the book is, the longer it takes me to read it though. These books took me a month and a half. A MONTH AND A HALF. This may sound like a really fast paced reading for you but for me that's eons. Why did I keep reading them if I hated them so much? I could never tell you. When I start to read a book and the first few chapters aren't good I say to myself "{don't worry, it will get better, just stick it out a few more chapters" then when I'm almost halfway done I say "usually books pick up around the midway point, that's when the action really starts". Then when I'm past the halfway mark it's "well I've already read half, I might as well finish it". After that I consider it a personal battle between me and that book and I'll be damned before I let a pound or so of dead wood beat me. I suffer through every terrible page towards the end (and I've noticed that bad books get even worse towards the end) just to spite the book. I roll my eyes at it and make derisive, sarcastic comments about it. "Gee, the hero magically appears in the window. WHAT AN ORIGINAL IDEA. You must be SO proud of yourself Outlander." I take the books silence as meek surrender.
When the book is good though, it takes control of ME. Stephen King has written some really really good books. Others were so-so. A few were so bad they actually degrade the value of the paper they're printed on. They always open that creative door though, and that's why I love them. Last night I wrote two pages. The night before I wrote another two. This morning I wrote one before work, and I'm about to start on another one or two. If I keep this pace, I'll finish my novel before the end of the month. So Steve, if you're out there, thanks. You wrote some damn good yarns.
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
Good luck with your novel