Joy in Experimentation
This post is dedicated to everyone who has ever asked me, “What department have you chosen?”
Thank you for your interest, for your sound advice, or rebellious encouragement. Thank you for your open-mindedness or your commitment to your own beliefs. Thank you for making your mark in our creative industry.
This week I practiced joy in experimentation, embracing creativity in every size, shape, and form as it came to me. Whatever you believe about our work, how it should or shouldn’t be done, I hope this little log of mine inspires you to take pride in whatever form of self-expression comes dancing out of your imagination next.
Sunday, February 26th
Today, I finished a rough draft of a short screenplay that’s been incubating on my creative back shelf for a long time. About one year ago now, one of my best friends from elementary school asked me to write a screenplay adaptation of her self-published YA book: ‘Switched.’ Her book is a fictionalized auto-biography about her adoption story.
This project has been particularly challenging because I have never written an adaptation before. Cross referencing what has already been written, while trying to do justice for a story that came from someone else’s heart has been anything but easy. I relied on social accountability to motivate me to finish my first draft.
I recruited my friends to remind me about deadlines along the way, and to do a read-through at the end. It was really rewarding to hear the dialogue read aloud with their interpretations of the characters. It gave me a better sense of how the story flows, and I received some helpful feedback.
My goal was to write a draft that is 15–20 pages long (which works out to about 15–20 minutes of screen time) but the draft came out to 27 pages long. I will work on cutting it down a bit in the first round of edits. But for now, I’m happy to have been able to take the 250 page original novel down to a ballpark length for a short film.
Monday, February 27th
Today, I tried to cook something new: Fried avocado slices. I wanted to bring a fun vegetarian filling to a taco party. My friends in the film industry, like myself, often have weird unpredictable schedules. Enjoying a Monday off with good company makes all the difference when we’re so often isolated from a world which revolves around 9–5 schedules. So we got together to eat tacos for lunch.
I followed a recipe I found online, and prepped three bowls. 1) Flour, salt, and pepper. 2) Eggs, beaten. 3) Bread crumbs. Then I sliced a couple avocados into eighths, and dipped the slices into each bowl consecutively. Once all my avocado slices were breaded, I fried them in vegetable oil over medium heat. The first batch came out slightly overdone, but the second batch was perfectly golden brown on the outside and creamy on the inside. I finished off by tossing them in an improvised mixture of salt, garlic powder, and cayenne. Mmm.
Tuesday, February 28th
Today, I worked on an article for a food blog that I’ve been publishing with a friend of mine. I’ve been procrastinating on my articles for a while, but I sat down first thing this morning and wrote a prologue for my next rough draft. It feels like a drop in the bucket compared to how much I still have left to write — not to mention the edits that will need to be done — but for now I’ll take some progress over no progress.
“The piano melody of Billy Joel’s ‘Vienna Waits for You,’ echoes through the chambers of my consciousness as memories of Austria resurface. I remember sitting at a wicker table with matching chairs outside of a pink café. Across the street from the Vienna State Opera, a few classmates and I enjoy a leisurely cup of coffee after purchasing Stehplatz (first come, first serve, standing place only) tickets, waiting another hour or so until curtain. Sweaters protect us from the chill of crisp spring air, and the sunshine reaches us in a diffuse ambience through hazy blueish skies. Everything in Vienna feels leisurely, that’s what Billy Joel’s song is all about: Slowing down to enjoy the moment, something Austrians have a knack for.”
I’ve been trying to embrace “slow writing” which to me means letting the writing come in small bits and pieces over time. In school, I always busted things out in their entirety the day before they were due, so allowing a project to unfold over time feels impossibly slow by comparison. There’s a fine line between working slowly and not working at all, but at the end of the day… if there’s no joy in the process, what’s the point?
I also made this small piece of art while enjoying a phone call with a longtime friend from high school. As we discussed friendship, romance, career, politics, and religion, I let this work unfold in the background. I started with markers, creating a pattern, and then painted over it with watercolors, adding depth to the texture.
Wednesday, March 1st
Today, I sketched a quick still life right before bed. I plucked this flower out of our kitchen bouquet, and plopped it into a glass of water so I could take it into my room. After a long day of work, chores, and social activity, taking a few minutes to observe something beautiful feels both luxurious and rejuvenating. I’ve always found flowers to be the most forgiving subject, which is why I enjoy drawing and painting them so much. With something so simple and sweet, there’s little room for the internal critic to butt in.
It’s tempting to forego creative activity for a guilty pleasure like scrolling mindlessly on Instagram, particularly when I feel like I’ve already “done enough” today. Yet spending time with my creativity was a deeply restful moment. I had no trouble falling asleep afterwards, and woke up easily at 4:50a the next morning for work.
Thursday, March 2nd
Today, one of my friends shared a song with me on Spotify and said it would be cool if we could learn to play it. I asked him if he had music for the violin part, and he said no, so I sat down at the keyboard and tried to figure it out. I started writing down the important notes once I was able to kind of sort of play along to the recording.
After I had something to work off of, I started playing it on the violin. It was tricky at first to find decent positioning, but after some guess and check work I finally started getting the hang of the opening. I’m still working on the rhythmic elements and transitioning between the different riffs, but after about an hour of struggling with it I called it a day and recorded my progress so far.
Friday, March 3rd
Today, I wrote a found poem from the first chapter of Ursula K. Le Guin’s ‘The Dispossessed.” Writing this poem helped me honor my own emotions in a difficult time. As I read this chapter, certain words and phrases called out to me, like they were speaking directly to me. All I did was write them down.
Saturday, March 4th
Today, I shared my creative. To me, creativity has always been a way of connecting with others when words aren’t enough. It’s a way of showing, “I am here. I am with you.” The act of sharing my creativity means giving up control and letting other people interpret or interact with it in their own ways. It’s a very vulnerable feeling, and at the same time, feels very rewarding.
So in that sense, I couldn’t do it without you. Thank you, reader, for allowing me to share my creativity.
