A friend forwarded this great post about Ray Bradbury, including some wonderful video of him talking about writing, including a short documentary called "A Conversation with Ray Bradbury" and another short doc from the 1960's.
It's great to watch, but this quote struck me, blurbed at the top -
‘I never went to college — I don’t believe in college for writers. The thing is very dangerous. I believe too many professors are too opinionated and too snobbish and too intellectual, and the intellect is a great danger to creativity… because you begin to rationalize and make up reasons for things, instead of staying with your own basic truth — who you are, what you are, what you want to be. I’ve had a sign over my typewriter for over 25 years now, which reads ‘Don’t think!’ You must never think at the typewriter — you must feel. Your intellect is always buried in that feeling anyway.’”
This reminded me of something my singing teacher used to say: "Sing Stupid." She said some of the best singers were not that smart, or could turn it off, because the minute you start thinking about it you seize up a lot of creativity.
I also remember reading something about the facility for language being the closest to the rational brain, so when trying to write (creativity) using a rational tool (language), it's harder to be in that creativity than when creating art or the like. So, write stupid?
Or maybe, "Write, stupid." Though that doesn't sound very nice. And easier said than done.
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