Guida’s Guide to Tapping the Creative Unconscious
Recently a commenter named Guida was kind enough to share his creative writing process with me, here. Because it’s really cool and I’m going to try it right away, and because not everyone reads all the comments but might find it useful, I’m re-posting what he she wrote for the benefit of one and all.
So here it is! Give it up for Guida…
I’m sending you a method I used while writing a screenplay which had a deadline. It was really helpful in generating and gathering material.
The method itself consists of an attempt to communicate with your unconscious mind through free writing. Everyday you go to sleep. You sleep and you might have a weird dream, which you might recall, and you have precious minutes of partnership with your unconscious before your everyday-vigil state starts to take over. It is THOSE minutes we aim at. :)
[Note: for this process to work, you should write on only one side of the paper].
1. Write as soon as you wake up.
* You’re going on a date with yourself, so plan a day in the near future when you wake up one hour before your ‘usual’ hour.
* This means that if you want coffee, mini-snack, cigarettes while writing, prepare all you can the night before, for these minutes are precious.
* As soon as the alarm rings: you just write nonstop.
initially, one might have the tendency to complain about feeling tired, or describe the dream you were having, or even things you find silly. Don’t mind them; keep on writing; soon you will be getting specific thoughts, memories or fragments of a story, something just begging to be described. Write it all.
* After an hour has passed, immediately stop writing, and don’t read what you’ve written yet, no matter how tempting.
* You repeat this process 5, 6 times during 2 weeks, always identifying your papers by date.2. Writing during the day:
This phase is less demanding, for you can choose to write wherever you are. The only rule is the pre-established date with yourself (day and hour determined beforehand). This also means you don’t judge yourself yet, so take advantage of your 1-hour dates with creativity; abolish censorship just for the meantime (you’re not supposed to censor what you have’t read, right?)
3. Read your texts for the first time and go through the motions of the process.
A) Enjoy the ride of the first reading (finally allowed to see your “work”). When reading for the 2nd time, try to name your papers with what seems more semantically coherent (this is your stuff, so you can name it as you understand it).
B) The process: take all your papers and spread them on the floor, and in a way so you can clearly see their names/themes, and if ever 2 or 3 subjects come up on the same page, take your scissors and separate them.
* Don´t throw any papers away,even if they seem crap or useless (they might give you hints later, for better things, in ways you couldn’t suspect at the time).
* There might be a paper connected to several themes; don’t worry if you don’t know what to do with it yet (give everything the benefit of the doubt). You might find personnal themes mixed with what seems less recognizable from your individuality — it’s okay.
* You now can start to find patterns and similarities between papers. Some might be enticing or mysterious, others less…
* Now you have fun doing permutations with your papers, exploring the potential each time you switch the order. (I find this part hillarious!)
* After this, you take the papers and new ideas onto the next stage (dismiss what you want, but keep them for a rainy day).4. Go back to free writing.
* Set specific hours to write beforehand (like steps 1 & 2).
* You might want to further develop some of the themes discovered, but keep a “door” open for new unconscious material.
* You might have several different themes and feel divided, but remember all material gathered until now can be the basis for different songs.The good thing about this is you can repeat it if you feel the material is not sufficient … I’m not imposing the method on you, I just know by experience (and I’m not in the music business) how castrating being a perfectionist can be. All the best to you, to yours and to your temperamental vampires…
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4 Responses to “Guida’s Guide to Tapping the Creative Unconscious”
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how curious,sweetie…you thought i was a boy.i take it as a compliment(2straight girls helping each other out is probably less common than any of the other possibilities).don´t change anything,i just didn´t want to keep you in the dark.plus,your male followers will be relieved to know that i´m not competition,lol
you are adorable…(heads up!watch out for brooke and that kitchen knife of hers!)…:* ;)
That’s so funny. As I wrote ‘he’ initially, a little voice whispered, “you sure it’s a ‘he’?.. a guy with a name that ends in ‘a’?”… to which I replied, “I don’t know, but I ‘feel’ like it’s a guy, so I’m going to be an ass and assume.” And sure enough… :)
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I did change it to ’she’ up there, but I left ‘he’ crossed out so as not to cover my ass (my being one, that is). also so this conversation makes sense.
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Thanks once again for sharing this! I’m starting it today, by the way. I’m altering it a little, though. Instead of writing for an hour immediately upon waking, which I discovered this morning doesn’t work too well for me (I can’t go more than a couple minutes after waking without brushing my teeth. then I get really hungry after another ten)…
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I’m going to have a 20-30 minute nap in the afternoon (or when I get home from work, if it’s a work day) and do the writing immediately upon waking from that. I think it’ll work well because I’ve noticed in the past, when I do take a nap, I almost always wake up with a great idea or a solution to a problem, so I think that tendency will lend itself well.
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I’ve already got all 6 of these dates with myself scheduled into my day planner (yes I’m a nerd) for the next two weeks, in bold pink letters! :)
i don´t feel you´re an ass,at all.you´ve been like a mirror of myself(sometimes your responses are so familiar,it´s erie).like calling yourself a nerd,and embracing it;that´s1.
and just a while ago,after posting,went to hear lrrh and saw the”are you a guy or a girl” comment,your reply”i´m an alien”,i laughed my head off.
i used to be quite paranoid,was afraid that internet outside what i know and see(like sending mssgs to ppl i know) was threatening,you proved me wrong(i know,it was unknowingly).that´s the beauty and the anti-paranoia of it.
there is a saying in portuguese that says”everything that exists up there,exists down here,too”,so i think a part of me “searched” for familiar places.
once again,i haven´t read your books exactly,but somehow i know that you know my energy co-created the finding of familiar places.
i´ve only been active in this sort of search (through comp.)for 2 nearly3months(see?i am a nerd at some aspects,wasn´t fooling you).so there´s no way you could have guessed my gender(no data,though that voice of yours is astonishingly reliable!).
let me explain exactly why you´re not an ass.i´ve recognised a presence(you have that voice) of a feminine being,very gentle,soothing beyond words,who´s with me.and when i´m firm about something,i thought that was no presence,”that´s just me being too human,machowaman or something, thinking i can do something”(some people percieve me as bold).
then last march 2007 this woman in a gem store came to me to congratulate me for my “company”.not only did she describe the feminine presence,she also described a masculine one(i said”really?”),a warrior,groundbreaker.
now i don´t neglect that nice warrior of mine,and in a way it´s completely legitimate you thought i was guy.i was overcoming my phobia.
essencially,what is my point?
ask the universe,let it go confident but unattached,and your personnal definition of abundance will come to you,that´s the message i receive from these surreal episodes you´ve unknowingly been a part of.
hope i didn´t make you erie,and thanx for all the laughs i´ve had until now.
theories and methods are meant to serve our purposes and not the other way around,so i am glad that you have adapted it to your life and kept the essencial.
from 1 proud nerd to another,
guida
Hey Guida, I just replied to you by email. This website makes my eyes bleed! (I’m sorry guys!!! I’m going to fix it soon, I swear).