My Process

            Wait … process? I have a process? Is it named after me? If not, what good is it?

            It’s said that every artist has a process, assumed to be as distinct as they are. I suppose that’s true, but what of those like myself who engage in all different forms of art? Is there a different process for each type of art? Do they overlap? The short answer is ‘uh, maybe?’ It should be obvious by this point that even I’m not sure what the hallmarks of my process are. But as there can be no art without a process to work through, I will now attempt to sketch out that process here. Please be patient, I will probably wander a bit.

            I started drawing when I was four years old. I started singing in public in the eighth grade and started acting at 16. Painting, sculpture, drafting and mechanical design all wedged themselves in there around these times, with architectural design last of all. I don’t actually recall when I started writing stories down, although somewhere between 13 and 20 seems most likely. I’ve been making up stories of various kinds for most of my life. In all cases and at all times (except for performance arts), the inspiration to do any particular project or write any story has always come to me without warning from some source that I cannot point to directly. This source has never stopped throwing ideas into my head. At different points, it could be as many as three or four great ideas a day, completely unlooked-for. However, they were rarely the kinds of ideas my teachers wanted me to have. I was a bright student in school, but the educational establishment couldn’t tolerate any idea they hadn’t put in a kid’s head, so they tried to erase them. Thankfully, they were unable to drive out my creative source, no matter how they tried. I’m afraid I caused no end of frustration to my teachers because of this. To those who have never experienced this kind of non-local idea synthesis, I can only say I’m sorry. It’s exhilarating and wonderful, but I do understand that it’s also quite unusual. Once my head gets a spark of an idea, it runs with it, creating a full narrative as it goes. This is where my process begins with all my arts – they diverge rapidly from there.

            When it comes to drawing and painting, I will usually get a single image, tantalizing but static. That’s usually my less-than-fully-thought-out cue that I’m looking at a visual art project. Mechanical and architectural designs will often also look this way, but will obviously be about machinery or buildings, not animals, landscapes or people. Mechanical designs will often move in my thoughts, demonstrating their use. They will also often play out in my mind as exploded drawings. From the point where an idea is fully formed in my head, it’s time to put it on paper, vellum or canvas. Very often, I will edit and expand the work as I create it. The process of visual creation is always quite fluid, at least in the early going, only setting up as various elements find their proper places. Once the work is complete and has had a full checkup, it’s usually finished.

            Acting and singing is mostly about the rehearsal process and getting everything correct and in the right order. I don’t read music, so I take a little longer to learn some things, but once I have it – it’s set in stone. I can still recall many songs from my youth – every word. I often tell people that my acting process is a matter of finding out what the other characters think of my character (often expressly written) and then intuiting what my character thinks of himself. (I don’t get cast for female characters – I look horrible in a dress. It’s the beard.) My next step is to find a resonant note inside me – some aspect of my weird, wacked-out personality that echoes in the character – and then expand on that aspect to flesh out the person. All the other little tricks – makeup, costume, character voice, physical movement – get layered on top of the raw character to make up the final effect.

            Writing is a long and convoluted process for me. Again, coming up with ideas for stories and blogs is a snap, and usually happens without my prompting. Then I sit down and start thinking about the piece. As often as not, an entire narrative line will suggest itself to me, largely unbidden. I just have to be fast enough to write down (sketch out, really) the high points and maybe one or two short conversations between characters. Very often I will see the story roll past me like a movie or a play, more or less complete. Then I pick a spot in the narrative as close to the end as possible and start writing. As you can tell, my writing owes a lot to my theatrical training.

            Some people are plotters – they must have every bit of the story outlined and subdivided, ready for filling in. These are the authors who need to know what the last line in the book will be before they can write the first. Some authors are ‘pantsers’, as in ‘seat-of-the-pants’ writers. They don’t want to know how it will end; they just want to follow the story as it meanders out of their skulls onto the page. When it seems pretty well done, they finish it. Their attitude is, ‘I can fix it in the edit’. I’m somewhere in the middle – I’m what’s sometimes called a ‘plantser’, meaning I do both things as needed. I have a pretty good idea where the story is going before I start, I even sometimes write out a very sketchy outline. Then I just write, following the story wherever it wants to go, outline or no outline. I sometimes feel like a bloodhound, following the switchbacks in the elusive trail the story leaves behind. If I get stuck or can’t find my way out of a rabbit hole I’ve gotten into, I sometimes put together a brief outline of the next immediate steps in the narrative, and off I go again. Once in a while, a completely new and usually outlandish twist will occur to me in the middle of this planning, and everything goes out the window as I follow this new scent. I have almost never been disappointed by this kind of serendipitous writing. I don’t pad the work – there’s usually plenty of stuff to look at along the road, but the action will not be denied. Also – I’m a firm believer that character is more important than plot. Characters create plot. Or as Ray Bradbury put it: “Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.” Perfectly stated.

            I hope this little digression gives you some snippet of insight into what can generously be called ‘my process’. It’s wacky, it’s random, but it’s a whole lot of fun. And it’s far too late to change me.

bcd