We’ve bumped around the subject of the human brain before here and its connection to the creative process. Well, the July 28th issue of the New Yorker magazine has an article called “The Eureka Hunt” that is right in my wheelhouse of interest. What happens in the human brain when a person has a “moment of insight,” or what scientists call the insight experience? How many times has this happened to you re your writing: you’re stuck with a story problem, your plot seemingly boxed in, then you’re off doing something entirely apart from writing, your mind elsewhere and boom – the solution comes to you? From the article:
Many stimulants, like caffeine, Adderall, and Ritalin, are taken to increase focus — one recent poll found that nearly twenty percent of scientists and researchers regularly took prescription drugs to “enhance concentration” — but, accordingly to Jung-Beeman and Kounios, drugs may actually make insights less likely, by sharpening the spotlight of attention and discouraging mental rambles. Concentration, it seems, comes with the hidden cost of diminished creativity. “There’s a good reason Google puts Ping-Pong tables in their headquarters,” Kounios said. “If you want to encourage insights, then you’ve got to also encourage people to relax.” Jung-Beeman’s latest paper investigates why people who are in a good mood are so much better at solving insight puzzles. (On average, they solve nearly twenty percent more C.R.A. problems.)
So sometimes, what’s required for creative insight is not concentration, but rather play, relaxation, or a change of scenery.
I worked on a TV pilot for NBC under the guidance of the show runner Roy Huggins. When you work with a person who created the TV shows “The Rockford Files” and “The Fugitive”, you tend to listen very carefully to their advice. Roy’s approach was to figure out each scene one after the other, no jumping around, go from scene one to scene two to scene three in straight linear fashion. I asked him if he ever got stuck and he said, “All the time.” What would he do? Roy liked to get in his car (I seem to remember he was fond of Jaguars) and drive. Just drive. He’d start off by thinking about the story problem, then his mind would wander. One time he said he got so engrossed in his thoughts, that when he finally solved the story problem, he discovered he had driven all the way to Arizona. But he drove back a happy man.
Sometimes you just need to slam your head against the story problem over and over to solve it. But it’s always possible that what you really need to do is go outside and play for awhile.
UPDATE: In comments per the question “how do you solve story problems,” Luzid says simply: “Weed.” Interesting because Carl Sagan was a long-time proponent of marijuana. He used to write stoned and edit sober, a variation on Mark Twain’s old line, “Write drunk, edit sober.”
Scott, Thanks for sharing Roy Huggin’s secrets. Love hearing how the pro’s do what they do.
I fix problems usually by just thinking about it for a while, and mentally weighing options in my mind. Sometimes DRAWING helps. I’m no Picaso, but I can draw stick figures…
Scott, writing ANY story means you’re opening yourself up to get stuck, cuz you’re exploring the UNKNOWN. The only path availble is the one you blaze. EVERYTHING looks easier in retrospect, after a final product has been achieved.
IF you do a lot of prewriting, I belive you can avoid a lot of pratfalls. I generally do a several page write up on potential scenes I’m contemplating writing. Then I compose index cards on my pegboard. Do an outline. Do a character roster. During all this I’m finding story problems and fixing them, so when I write in Final Draft the anxiety is as low as I can make. I think those who just dive into their screenwriting program and just write are really at a risk of getting seriously stuck.
But to answer your question, the best eureka finder I have is through mapping out the scenes. I usually couple this with a stick figure picture so I’m spacially aware of what and where things in the scene will be.
- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA
Weed.
No, seriously.
Sativa strains increase concentration but also – and this is the really cool part – increase your brain’s random-association pattern-seeking.
Creativity, after all, is about testing combinations and rejecting or refining them. A good toke makes this happen more frequently, and also allows the herbalist to think this way when not smoking.
Sounds crazy, but it’s not.
Absolute silence.
So that thoughts can come out of my brain and flood the environment, taking life around me.
And time. Billions of years.
A breathtaking horizon at eye’s hand would be a plus, but maybe it would also be distracting.
M.
dance
I tend to write out my problems, which means tackle the scene from another angle or someone else’s POV, or even do the scenes leading up to it, or right after it (even though those ones may not make it to the actual script)
I get outside.
I might go for a drive (like Huggins) or simply putz around the yard.
At least once a month, I like to go backpacking or at the very least car camping. Most of the time, I’ll take along my field watercolor set. I don’t produce masterpieces either, but I do produce memories that I can go back to to find immediate relaxation.
I sometimes bring back a small stone or a stick that I can use as a touchstone.
When relaxed, I am more creative – and probably easier to be around!
Tom
Like Huggins, car rides spur creativity for me too. I always pack paper and pencils on the road.
When I’m stuck, I read the pages before I go to bed and really focus on the scene. Then I either dream about it or wake up with the answer. I keep a note pad by my bed table to capture thoughts before they escape.
Exercise also helps — good old fashioned fresh air and sunshine. Every morning I go for a long, invigorating walk to stimulate the thoughts.
And of course, new experiences and adventures. Life and people are so interesting that the influx of new ideas is almost overwhelming.
Julie