Creative people are used to ideas dropping in out of nowhere. It's strange but familiar. Yet, really, where DO these ideas come from? And are there actually two sources?
I haven't had any visions as you describe while writing. But I do feel that so much of what I write comes "unbidden" from some mysterious source, and in a way, it's like I'm a scribe recording something given to me rather than an author. Fascinating stuff. I'll look forward to reading more here.
I love this so much and can relate wholeheartedly! Writing is such a mysterious beast - I too wonder where some of my ideas and words come from. The sometimes otherworldliness of it all! Liz Gilbert writes a lot about this phenomenon in "Big Magic" - I highly recommend the book if you haven't already read it.
That is very mysterious and so very far from any experience I've had 🤷♂️. But I'm not a creative person by trade. I sometimes feel like a Pratchett character though, bombarded by particles of inspiration. Often for me these are metaphors or similarities between different things I've been reading or thinking about. My brain is a very strange connection-making machine at times!
Interesting - is that really how Pratchett describes it? I know of him, but I've never read him - and I know he's written a lot of books. Do you have any actual quotes of where he says stuff like this? I'd love to examine all that.
The thing you are talking about, where your brain makes connections and the results feel new, yes, definitely! I see that as the regular creative process that you can often learn to instigate and even sometimes control/drive, more or less. But I'm finding there are times when that explanation just doesn't go far enough, and there is something external to me that gives me the new materials.
“Inspirations sleet through the universe like neutrinos. Each one goes through a thousand brains before one hits the right receptor, and there it sticks, raising a little blaze of creativity.”
I'm quite envious. Imagine having the whole Pratchett oeuvre in front of you, untapped. You lucky person its there waiting 🙂🙂
And yes, there’s so much to read. I don’t know how I missed him really, I used to read a lot in that area. I was always putting him on one side for later, and now it is later and I still haven’t found him. Maybe this is a clue it’s time - though he’ll have to wait till I’ve sorted out this Abyss conundrum. It’s very absorbing.
I like this story as a way of opening up to the reality of an inter-connected world. A world where ideas aren’t held in private minds but rather, are included in the cosmic mind of an All-Inclusive-Whole and “prehended” in the becoming of experiential events that constitute our selves. Of course, these experiences are open to different interpretations which fit our perceptions of reality.
Thanks Don, appreciated. Yes, there's definitely something 'external' going on. Some kind of container of stuff, whether within us or around us. Have you read any of the other posts in my Abyss series? I think I should perhaps separate them out with a different picture/tags so they are more obvious in the list of posts.
(Oh, one thing, I've got a bug with my account so the full list of posts isn't available except through the full page link https://andyet.substack.com
Substack support are on it, but they're saying it willl take a couple of weeks to get to it, which is frustrating.)
My intentions are to read your other posts and hopefully to add a comment as feedback. As I wrote in my reply, I believe all experiences are interpreted and I should have added poorly communicated - an inherent weakness of human language.
I have the same frustration with not having an ordered list of my posts. 🙁
I haven't had any visions as you describe while writing. But I do feel that so much of what I write comes "unbidden" from some mysterious source, and in a way, it's like I'm a scribe recording something given to me rather than an author. Fascinating stuff. I'll look forward to reading more here.
I love this so much and can relate wholeheartedly! Writing is such a mysterious beast - I too wonder where some of my ideas and words come from. The sometimes otherworldliness of it all! Liz Gilbert writes a lot about this phenomenon in "Big Magic" - I highly recommend the book if you haven't already read it.
Isn’t it strange - and wonderful! We live in a world suffused by God. I don’t know that book but I will look it up now.
I'm hooked.
That is very mysterious and so very far from any experience I've had 🤷♂️. But I'm not a creative person by trade. I sometimes feel like a Pratchett character though, bombarded by particles of inspiration. Often for me these are metaphors or similarities between different things I've been reading or thinking about. My brain is a very strange connection-making machine at times!
Interesting - is that really how Pratchett describes it? I know of him, but I've never read him - and I know he's written a lot of books. Do you have any actual quotes of where he says stuff like this? I'd love to examine all that.
The thing you are talking about, where your brain makes connections and the results feel new, yes, definitely! I see that as the regular creative process that you can often learn to instigate and even sometimes control/drive, more or less. But I'm finding there are times when that explanation just doesn't go far enough, and there is something external to me that gives me the new materials.
Here we go: from Witches Abroad:
“Inspirations sleet through the universe like neutrinos. Each one goes through a thousand brains before one hits the right receptor, and there it sticks, raising a little blaze of creativity.”
I'm quite envious. Imagine having the whole Pratchett oeuvre in front of you, untapped. You lucky person its there waiting 🙂🙂
That’s brilliant, thank you!
And yes, there’s so much to read. I don’t know how I missed him really, I used to read a lot in that area. I was always putting him on one side for later, and now it is later and I still haven’t found him. Maybe this is a clue it’s time - though he’ll have to wait till I’ve sorted out this Abyss conundrum. It’s very absorbing.
I like this story as a way of opening up to the reality of an inter-connected world. A world where ideas aren’t held in private minds but rather, are included in the cosmic mind of an All-Inclusive-Whole and “prehended” in the becoming of experiential events that constitute our selves. Of course, these experiences are open to different interpretations which fit our perceptions of reality.
Thanks Don, appreciated. Yes, there's definitely something 'external' going on. Some kind of container of stuff, whether within us or around us. Have you read any of the other posts in my Abyss series? I think I should perhaps separate them out with a different picture/tags so they are more obvious in the list of posts.
(Oh, one thing, I've got a bug with my account so the full list of posts isn't available except through the full page link https://andyet.substack.com
Substack support are on it, but they're saying it willl take a couple of weeks to get to it, which is frustrating.)
My intentions are to read your other posts and hopefully to add a comment as feedback. As I wrote in my reply, I believe all experiences are interpreted and I should have added poorly communicated - an inherent weakness of human language.
I have the same frustration with not having an ordered list of my posts. 🙁