3. Modes of Creativity

I’ve had some pretty horrendous ideas for stories before.Stories, poems, scripts, everything.

Of course, at the time, they all seemed brilliant, worthy of critically-acclaimed attention, if only I would show someone. It makes me feel better that most of these ideas happened when I was younger (around 13 I wrote fifteen chapters about a girl named Cam…and nothing happens. In fifteen chapters, all she does is go to the park and talk to her friends. Sounds a little Mrs. Dalloway, huh? Too bad I'm not Virginia Woolf and I can definitely not pull that off).

Anyways, the point is, I think that maybe some of those horrible ideas I had, at the very essence of them, may have been heading in the right direction. Maybe whatever it was that I was trying to say could have become something substantial and I just wasn't using the right medium.

I took a class on Creativity a few semesters ago and I ended up having to address this topic. We used poetry, photography and another medium of our choosing (mine being painting) and it was basically about learing how to develop our of creative process. I had an idea for a poem that I desperately wanted to write; well, it was less of an idea really and more of the emotion inspired by an image. In the end, I realized that a poem wasn't right for this particular idea and I ended up using a painting instead. Granted I have no ability whatsoever when it comes to that mode of art, so I didn't accomplish what I'd hoped for, but it taught me something nonetheless.

As "poets" I think we need to be open to using other modes of expressing creativity, maybe we need to come to terms with the idea that all ideas aren't suitable for a poem. There's other genres of writing, of course: different styles of prose, short stories, scripts, etc., and then there are all other types of art....drawing, painting, music, sculpture, photography, just to name a few well-known ones. People create using everything from a paper and pen, to sheets of metal to what they find outside or in dumpsters.

I'm interested to know how all of you decide that your idea is best suited for poetry, and if you ever think to write it in another way. I'm primarily a fiction writer, so I lean towards that without thought, but sometimes I suddenly realize that maybe I need to think outside of the box a little. This discussion is particuarly important to my work because it's what this class is really all about for me...as I said, I'm not a poet. I shy away from it as often as possible and this semester I'm hoping to open myself up to another mode of creativity, or at least to the thought that not all ideas are necessarily right for prose.

How do all of you choose what form to express that creative inkling in? How do you decide what it will turn in to, what subject to use to transfer your meaning to your reader? Or, if you never think about anything other than poetry, how do you choose what form of poetry to write it in when there are so many different types? Is it a choice, or do you feel like the decision is made for you?

Who knows, maybe "BFF??" has unrealized potential and it just failed epically (as a serious poem, while soaring brilliantly as a joke poem) because it was being narrated in the wrong way.