Creative Elements

A few days ago, I wrote about the Community Word Project. My assignment for the week was to think about my "creative elements": what inspires me to create my art and what tools I use when I create. What forces inform what I write and what tools I use to articulate the ideas up there in my head. Nebulous concepts, sure. But definitely interesting to ponder.

So much goes into a given story, a given scene, a given fictional conversation. Where does the idea come from? Why am I writing about it? What point or message or feeling am I trying to communicate? (All this is assuming a hypothetical audience, of course, since most of the fiction I write doesn't get read by many real people!)(Yet!). I'm still so new to this kind of process, to this kind of art; even thinking about writing as "art" is a strange idea for me. I've been writing for a career for a long time, so it always feels more utilitarian than artsy. Sure, there's creativity any time you put words on a page—you're choosing to say this, not this. You're crafting your meaning. But I don't know whether I'm an artist. Yet.

My (working) list of creative elements:
Relationships
Rhythm
Memory
Philosophy
Voice
Vividness
Images
Fragments
Curiosity
Observation

I'm sure I'm missing a bunch, and some of these are more important than others. But these were the first elements that came to mind. I suppose relationships are a part of almost all stories—relationships, and their conflicts and resolutions. Rhythm, to me, is the way sentences are written and play off each other—the sound of language. Memory: of course. Philosophy? I find myself asking (or making my characters ask) what it all means (why? why? why?). Voice is voice—it has to be strong. Vividness....not sure exactly what I mean by this, but it's the color on the page. The concrete details. The freshness of the prose. Images: yes. Lots of them. Fragments: yes. Just like in this paragraph. Fragments help the rhythm. Sometimes choppy is good. I think it helps to be curious—about the world, about people, about why things are the way they are. And being a careful observer just helps the whole shebang come to life.

It's fun thinking of myself as an artist—I might try it for a while. Then, someday, I might really become one.