Creativity - The Three C's

I enjoy creativity in all forms. Rather than look at writing today, let's explore three very different outlets.

Charlotte Dellal designs shoes. Inspired by the 1940s, she works up ideas by engaging in various activities such as gardening. Her All About Eve summer collection had a shoe made of green leather and leaf shapes. "I love the 40s era, rich in accessories." She also likes to evoke the feel of an Agatha Christie murder mystery with an elegant heroine. "It's a fluid process. I start out with one thing and then it evolves into another."

Her favorite film is Gilda, starring Rita Hayworth. Apparently she keeps a huge scrapbook of magazine cutouts, old theater tickets, and movie posters. A collection of childhood toys and vintage shoes round out the muse. And her creativity does circle back to writing. Charlotte Dellal's spider web logo was inspired by an early edition of E.B.White's childhood classic Charlotte's Web.

source - Wall Street Journal - 2/12-13 p. C11

Cristeta Comerford is the White House Executive Chef. She is Phillipine born, French trained, and married to a chef of Irish descent. How did she create a "quintessentially American state dinner" for the Chinese President? Apparently known for her Asian spices, colors, and extra garlic, Comerford's creative process occurred in her hour long commute to work. Her mind sifted through recipes, available ingredients, colors, and a vision of the plating.

Highlights: goat cheese/D'anjou pear appetizer, then orange glazed carrots/black trumpet mushrooms/poached Maine lobster heralded the main course. Like a baseball coach, she instructs with hand signals. "The team worked in near silence, rehearsed movements akin to a ballet," said the chef. "Advance preparation and practice is key."

Her hard work paid off. The state dinner was deemed a success.

Guess I'll put away the Mac 'n Cheese and contemplate a plating for tonight. However, Ray's not keen on carrots. Will Cheetos (they are orange) suffice?

source: Wall Street Journal 2/26-27 p. C11


Conor Oberst, folk singer from Omaha, confesses "he's a thief, stealing phrases I hear and turning them into a chorus or theme." He carries a small digital recorder to capture "snatches of potential inspiration." Everyday dialogue and sound outtakes like a giggle fill his larder with musical paintings.Whether strumming a guitar or gliding across a keyboard, Oberst sings of life through "dreamy imagery, alien references, and spare melancholy."

source: Wall Street Journal 2/5-6 p. C11

The creative process takes its own course. If it did otherwise, it would not be creative.

F.W.Martin

Take the Lead

I peruse the Wall Street Journal for the small columns, tucked into back corners of the paper, that feature noted authors. In the matter of word craft, these gems offer wonderful ideas plus great writing. This Sunday (12/19/10), author John McPhee discussed writing leads and he captured the notion of "wading around in your notes, getting nowhere." You lack structure and your piece is a mess.

"Writing a successful lead can illuminate the problem for you and cause you to see the piece whole." Indeed, with the lead, you can build the structure, frame it in, and start spackling.

"A lead should not be cheap, flashy, meretricious, blaring: After a tremendous fanfare of verbal trumpets, a mouse comes out of a hole, blinking." I've been guilty of too much promise, and then not enough oomph. The lead shouldn't promise too much. Too much teasing sets up the reader for disappointment.

"A lead is good not because it dances, fires cannons or whistles like a train, but because it is absolute to what follows."

I wanted to share these key column points with my writer and reader friends. I hope it helps everyone to take the lead in good journalism, prose, and even in that Christmas or New Year letter still to be written.

Spring Ahead to Waterfront Reads

Spring arrived, albeit with snow, but let's ignore that fact and revel in the thought of a pier, wooden deck chair, or sand and a beach umbrella. Let's contemplate spring/summer reading. The Book Lover by Cynthia Crossen is one of my new favorite columns (WSJ 3/19/10). Here's one thing she had to say, "On the beach, however, I like being interupted by the ocean, so I want a book into which I can dip, daydream, dip,etc."
She recommends The Shell Seekers by Rosamund Pilcher, Becoming Strangers by Louise Dean, and Stone's Fall by Iain Pears.

Then again, according to Ms.Crossen, critic Anatole Broyard wrote, "The thought of people reading in the sun, on a beach, tempts me to recommend dark books, written in the shadow of loneliness, despair, and death. Let those revelers feel a chill as they loll on their towels." For that she suggests, Blackwater by Kerstin Ekman - a grisly murder mystery.

Enough of snow and winter and rainy, drab dreary weather. Let's think about sunshine, blue water, and summer reads. Or sitting on a rock and staring into space.