August 16, 2021
Holistic Creativity: How To Support Your Writing with Other Forms of Art
Chances are, if you’re a Home for Fiction friend you’re likely interested in literature and writing. Perhaps you are a writer yourself. In any case, you have perhaps realized the effect of holistic creativity, that is, a creative force that spans across art forms.
If you write, you likely also like music or perhaps painting. Maybe you play guitar or piano, or perhaps you like coming up with creative DIY solutions for your home. Bottom line, you are creative in several areas in your life.
Think of famous actors who were also photographers and singers, or of musicians who were also painters and designers. Creativity is very, very rarely limited in one field alone.
This is something you, as a writer, must exploit.
In this post I’ll share some of my own experiences in holistic creativity, showing you how you can help your writing using your other artistic interests. The bonus, of course, is that this is a two-way street: Your other artistic paths can also be helped by your writing!
Holistic Creativity: My Personal Experiences
To state the obvious, I’m a writer. Though being a writer and being an artist is not quite the same, for our purposes let’s simply assume the connection, to be able to differentiate it from non-artistic writingIf we wanted to be pedantic we could ask: Is there not some sort of artistry in nonfiction writing, too? I leave the answers to you..
I’m also a coder, which should be seen as an artistic expression. This is especially the case with interactive narratives.
What else? I compose music, I take photos (see the caption of the one above), and I’m quite fond of computer-assisted graphic design. Nowadays I even paint and draw wise-asses.
But how do these help my writing?
How A Holistic Approach to Creativity Can Help Your Writing
The first hints are in the caption of the photo, as I mentioned. Not only does knowledge of narrative flow allow me to take better photos, but taking photos helps my writing, too. The most obvious reason is that, having a “photographic memory” (here literally meaning remembering how a photo looks like), I can more easily describe scenes, drawing on details such as contrasts, colors, shapes, and whatnot.
Similarly, since sounds and literature exist in an intriguing relationship, playing music can help you understand things such as narrative pace.
Or, another idea: Do you paint? If so, you must be fairly good at finding connections between layers or shapes, colors or shades. In turn, this can inform your finding connections in your writing, too. The reason is, you have a head-start when it comes to conceptualizing patterns or deviations.
Art Has Many Forms, but It’s Common
In other words, art is art. There is writing and painting, sculpting and singing, but there is only one artistic concept. Whenever you do something, anything, that is artistic, you automatically nurture your creativity and imagination. You also train your artistic memory, which is special.
Overall, your goal should be to embrace the holistic creativity that is inside you. Help it be expressed, without polluting it with insignificant questions. No, it doesn’t matter if you can’t play the piano very well; play it still, if it’s something you feel like doing. Yes, you should paint even if you’re unsure – again, if it’s something you like. No, you shouldn’t care about audience reception or anything remotely relevant to the disgusting word “monetization”.
Art is about affect, meaning, and our absurd effort to find light in the endless void.
Addendum
Some days after I wrote this post and just around the time it went live, I actually got inspired enough to put some of my music online.
Click to display the embedded Bandcamp player
The Focus Protocol is a lo-fi music vehicle for some of my artistic ideas. It’s an experimental exploration of postrock and postmetal music combined with mostly indecipherable spoken words. It’s an allegory of narrative without plot, of utilizing the power of speech without the baggage conscious word-meaning carries.
You might also want to see this post, showing how composing music gave me (and can give you!) some fiction writing tips. And here’s a post on how being open to creative possibilities also works with happy accidents!
One Comment
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It makes characters 3D and 4D if you know their involvement with other choices. One of mine is a major actor – with a band, another a writer who loves to sing – and occasionally paints. The third character has a horrible singing voice, but has learned to use her unique voice when acting. Gifts that they share in pairs makes for interesting scene subtext.
It gives them something real to talk about.