I’m reading Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had reading a Pynchon novel. And I think I know why.
Creative. Opposition.
Pynchon is an ideas man. High-concept, conspiracy theorist, humanity as an organic mishap in a grinding clockwork universe kind of ideas.
Inherent Vice is a small scale, comedy of errors, sundrenched California noir novel. It’s still Pynchon, but with the vast conceptual frameworks snipped into human insights.
This is a brave and good thing to do as a writer. Or any kind of creator. Figure what your strengths are, realise they are also your weakness, and locate a force to oppose them.
- If you’re a writer of intimate character studies, place your characters in a galaxy spanning quest.
- If you’re a sculptor of monolithic bronzes, apply those shapes to a pendant.
- If you’re a songwriter of zippy pop ballads, work with an industrial techno collaborator.
- If you’re a great cook of French meat dishes, experiment with a vegetarian menu.
- If you’re an international businessman, spend a weekend running a market stall.
You get the idea. This might not produce your bestseller or top 40 hit, but it will reignite your creative engines. And it might produce your bestseller or top 40 hit.
Creative success can be its own trap. We always need something to resist, a force to challenge our strengths, a source of creative opposition.
Join my course for storytellers.
Or ask me a question on twitter.
Damien Walter 