Creativity is forever

Boom. [drops her microphone; exits stage left]

(This may end up being my RANDOM challenge entry. Random note on a paper draft. Random mistake as a reason the photo turned out so striking...)

Love the drama in this shot. Pure accident, of course. I unknowingly turned on the flash while setting the focus on my phone camera. :-)

I am working on an academic manuscript about creativity, under my major professor's guidance. He returned a draft to me with his comments, and it was more feedback than I have received on all of the papers I have written after starting my PhD program (four years ago) combined. While I tend to get the content right, nobody so far worked with me on making my papers REALLY good. This returned draft, full of black ink "blood", suggestions of studies to look up, "proper" scientific wording corrections, and things I need to change/add to strengthen the content/make it fit the paper type,  made me very, very happy.

It reminded me of the design studio dynamic, where, during the in-progress desk critiques, the prof scribbles on strewn about layers of "onion skin" sketch paper names of precedents for the student to look up: buildings, plazas, local ordinance requirements, and designers' philosophies. There is a dynamic to this process, an energy that is hard to replicate outside of fields that rely on the visual for communication, and yet I am experiencing it as we speak.

Finally someone is taking seriously my NEED TO KNOW, and desire to excel as a researcher/future expert in the field of creativity.  I know my writing is going to be bad, before it is good. The only way to move from bad to good is to keep writing a lot,  with a little help from my friends.  I cannot friggin' do it alone, no matter how hard I try.

I am reminded of this partial monologue by Ira Glass on beginnings, creativity, and taste.

I was  a bit embarrassed by failing to clean up the formatting mistakes  prior to handing Good Doctor the draft. I forgot to look it over for stupid stuff. I was sick and tired of staring at this document, and needed it off my plate. Sorry, MDDM, for the mess...  No space after doi:? In-text citations of multiple authors in alphabetical order? Who knew... ;-)

PS. The entire Ira Glass On Storytelling (4 parts) is here.