It might seem to be an odd place to start a conversation about writing — a book published in 1923 by philosopher Martin Buber — but the more I write, the more I become convinced of the value of Buber’s ideas to the creative process.
In his book “I and Thou,” Buber explores the concept of life as “encounter.” Much of human experience is based upon the “I – It” paradigm, where we objectify the ‘other,’ even people. In Buber’s view, the more authentic and direct human experience is what he calls “Ich – Du” (I – You), where there is an implicit mutuality in the relationship, and hence, the opportunity for genuine encounter.
I was reminded of Buber in a recent screenwriting course I taught online, as the class was discussing how to lift a story up off the page and make it come ‘alive.’
What if instead of thinking of story as “It,” we approached story as “You?”
What if story is already ‘alive’ with living, breathing elements — plot, characters, themes, dialogue?
What if the writer encounters story as part of a mutual “I – You” relationship, where we give life to story and story gives life to the creative process?
In the prep-writing phase – brainstorming, plotting, character development, outline, etc – we devote so much time to handling story as an object, an “It.” If nothing else, Buber’s ideas serve as a helpful counterbalance to remind us that if our end point is to create a story that does lift up off the page and come to ‘life’ in the experience of the reader, once we type FADE IN, we do well to encounter story as “You.”
For more on Martin Buber, you can go here, here, and here.
“what if the story is already ‘alive’ with living breathing elements?”
I came across this concept in relation to music but hadn’t thought of it in relation to story. The composer Steve Reich was being intervied about a piece of his (Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ, I think it was) and he described it as starting out at full tempo with no intro or opening statement as if the evolution of the interplay of musical lines in the piece had started before we got there and turned up the volume, as it were.
Then, for my own part, I was exploring ambient sound generation. Since it was all computer generated, I made up a name for the composer of the pieces.
When I found myself inventing character attributes for him, I realized that this guy was a character in a story that I wasn’t working on at that time (I thought) .
Thinking about it now, the inspiration for that story idea goes back through pulp fiction into ancient texts and no doubt back into oral history, so in that sense the story goes on – ‘a river runs through it’ ☺
Funny you mention Steve Reich, but my oldest son, Will, was just sharing some Reich’s music with me the other day. Will discovered Reich at Governor’s School two summers ago and Reich’s approach to composition has influenced Will considerably.
I love how you ‘generated’ a character almost backward, yes? Started with this music, then make up a name, and suddenly, there’s this persona rambling around in your consciousness. It’s stories just like that which continue to amaze and inspire me about the creative process, those tiny little sparks of spontaneous thoughts — “Hey, what if I give a name to this composer?” — that give birth to new ideas.
Of course, this line of discussion, comparing music and story, takes me back to one of my lectures, likening sonata form with three-act structure. Perhaps I’ll shall muck about with those ideas again and post something.
BTW, what is the name of your composer?
His name is Golkar Tinambunan. The origin of the name is Indonesian but he is not himself Indonesian.
I had been working on a story and got it to a point where I could put it aside for a while because I needed to.
There was a character in it who was a herald, gatekeeper and buddy-figure but he kept shifting on me. All I really had was the realization that this one guy was going to have these three character functions. Then I had to forget about it for a while.
Then, while working with music and this fictitious composer and having found a name for him, it came to me in a flash that this was the same guy! This was him!
I hadn’t been conscious of working on the story but there was something about the sound samples and rhythmic patterns that I had selected that made the connection. Now this guy has a whole new dimension.
So the story, I believe, having been put in motion was continuing to exert influence and making choices for me.
The name in fact came from some spam. It seems to be becoming a rich source of inspiration! I kept getting mail calling me Golkar Tinambunan, telling me I had great credit and asking did I want some money (to buy a larger penis, I guess). This sounds like a well set-up guy. Now he has this whole other dimension.
That’s a very funny saga, John, but also instructive. I seem to remember a quote somewhere: “There are stories everywhere, we just have to open our eyes to see them.” I guess, too, our ears as well, as characters may spring from sound as well as sight.