Creative Work Created Out Of Creativity Exercises

The other day I was listening to a podcast called "You Made it Weird," with comedian Pete Holmes. His guest that day was comedian and author John Hodgman, perhaps best known to my generation as "PC" from a number of Apple commercials from the early to mid-aughts, such as this one:

Anyway, about 40 minutes into the podcast, Holmes and Hodgman begin discussing writing, comedy, and creativity. Hodgman says at one point: "There is no ritual, other than starting, that enhances creativity." And while I don't disagree with this sentiment, I do believe that there are certain activities or exercises one can do to help with the starting process.  In fact, Hodgman himself believes this to some extent, since right after he says the above quote, he begins talking about cartoonist Lynda Barry and her book One Hundred Demons.

Although Hodgman mentions Barry and this book as an example of an artist who jumpstarts creativity by "just starting" (he cites Barry's practice of simply moving pencil to paper, which not only get her hands going, but also serves to remind her brain that "she can do this"), I wanted to know more about what Barry might have to say about creativity or getting one to behave or act creatively. I borrowed a copy of One Hundred Demons from my local library, and although the content of the book itself didn't offer up much in the way of tips for creativity, some brief online research revealed to me that the genesis of the book lay in a particular kind of creative exercise. According to the website Comic Book Resources,

"The concept of the series [that became the book One Hundred Demons] was to do a twist on the Japanese zen painting exercise called "One Hundred Demons," where you paint your "demons" in an effort to get them out of your system. In this case, Barry turns her demons into funny, engaging and heartfelt comic stories."

I really liked the idea that a creative exercise (not unlike the many we have tackled in our class so far) resulted in a specific, creative piece of art. As a challenge to myself (and for a blog post) I decided to try and find 5 more books (or other creative texts) that were (potentially) borne out of a creative exercise. After spending a solid 30-40 minutes pulling titles off my shelf and doing online research to corroborate potential origins, I counted 8 books and considered my findings a success. Then, as I began to write up the results of my search, I realized that I had to discount half of those titles.

For me, one of the biggest challenges in this exercise was determining whether or not somebody was simply cataloguing an interesting, innovative or creative endeavor they had already completed, or if the book had truly resulted out of an exercise meant to jumpstart creativity. In the end, I kept in these 4 titles:

1) The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss

According to legend (and verified by this NPR story) The Cat in the Hat came about after William Spaulding, the director of the educational division of Houghton Mifflin, gave Dr. Seuss a list of vocabulary words for first graders.

2) My Year With Eleanor by Noelle Hancock

After being laid off from her job as an entertainment reporter, Noelle Hancock decided to do one thing every day that scared her (taking inspiration from Eleanor Roosevelt, hence the title.) Sometimes this meant running down the hall of her apartment building naked; other times it meant climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. This exercise was done not simply as an exercise to get her creative juices flowing again after losing her job, but also truly reoriented how she lived her life.

3) "Indian Education" by Sherman Alexie

One story in particular in this collection that really seems the result of a creative exercise is called "Indian Education" and includes a brief snapshot (a paragraph or less) from each year of the protagonist's life, starting with "First Grade." Although it seems like a series of 12 anecdotes, it actually builds up into a complete story with a full narrative arc and running themes and tropes. I know for a fact this exercise can help inspire creativity since in an English class in high school I was once assigned to write a story using this as a model.

4) The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits by Emma Donoghue

Each of the short stories in this collection is based on a historical news story, fact, or brief anecdote that Donoghue fleshed out to develop a complete story, oftentimes giving the women featured in the story more depth, empathy, and humanity than the original historical accounts may have afforded them.

And just in case anybody is interested, here are the 4 books that didn't quite make the cut:

MWF Seeking BFF by Rachel Bertsche
The Lunatic Express by Carl Hoffman
Apron Anxiety: My Messy Affairs In and Out of the Kitchen by Alyssa Shelasky
Grounded: A Down to Earth Journey Around the World by Seth Stevenson