____________________________________
Dorothy Sayers (mmm)
The Plan
Page 49,
G. A. Blaauw points out that creative effort involves three
distinct phases:
(1) architecture,
(2) implementation, and
(3) realization.
Page 15,
Dorothy Sayers divides creative activity into three stages:
1. the idea (architecture),
2. the implementation (implementation), and
3. the interaction (realization).
(The mythical man-month : essays on software engineering, Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. -- Anniversary ed., © 1985, Software engineering, p.49, p.15.)
____________________________________
p.15
Dorothy Sayers, in her excellent book, "The Mind of the Maker," divides creative activity into three stages: the idea, the implementation, and the interaction.
The idea (1)
“A book, then or a computer, or a program comes into existence first as an ideal construct, built outside time and space, but complete in the mind of the author.”
The implementation (2)
“It is realized in time and space, by pen, ink, and paper, or by wire, silicon, and ferrite.”
The interaction (3)
“The creation is complete when someone reads the book, uses the computer, or runs the program, thereby interacting with the mind of the maker.”
This description, which Miss Sayers uses to illuminate not only human creative activity but also the Christian doctrine of the Trinity (tri=3) (adopted from Greek philosophy), will help us in our present task.
For the human makers of things, the incompletenesses and inconsistencies of our ideas become clear only during implementation. Thus it is that writing, experimentation, "working out" are essential disciplines for the theoretician.
In many creatives activities the medium of execution is intractable. Lumber splits; paints smear; electrical circuits ring. These physical limitations of the medium constrain the ideas that may be expressed, and they also create unexpected difficulties in the implementation.
Implementation, then, takes time and sweat both because of the physical media and because of the inadequacies of the underlying ideas. We tend to blame the physical media for most of our implementation difficulties; for the media are not "ours" in the way the ideas are, and our pride colors our judgement.
(The mythical man-month : essays on software engineering, Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. -- Anniversary ed., © 1985, Software engineering, p.15 )
____________________________________
architecture, implementation, and realization.
p.49 As Blaauw points out, the total creative effort involves three dis
tinct phases:
(1) architecture,
(2) implementation, and
(3) realization.
It turns out that these can in fact be begun in parallel and proceed simultaneously.
(The mythical man-month : essays on software engineering, Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. -- Anniversary ed., © 1985, Software engineering, p.15, p.49 )
____________________________________
‘Dessein’
pp.15-16
Designing as Planning
The French have made the various notions of design easier to put into perspective by retaining two slightly different words, ‘dessein’ and ‘dessin’, for two quite different concepts, for which English-speakers have only one. In the broadest sense, the French distinguish between a private side of the design process, visible only to the mind's eye of the designer, and public expressions of it, visible to anyone.
‘Dessein’ pertains to the covert aspect of design. Its synonyms include aim, contemplate, aspire, envision, plan, project, propose, resolve, scheme, and speculate. It is strictly imaginary and intangible. More important, this aspect of design involves a future-oriented frame of mind, often laced with hope and idealism. We are all born designers in this sense, without need of formal schooling. You exercise your intuitive design skills in everything you do, from contemplating what ‘better’ color to paint the living room to choosing the ‘best’ thing to wear. You design next summer's vacation, too, as you consider options of where to go, when to go, and how much to spend――and select from among them. You might have begun a long-range design project by planning your retirement, even if all you have done so far is open a saving account.
(‘Watches tell more than time : product design, information, and the quest for elegance’, written by Del Coates, publisher McGraw-Hill, pp.15-16)
____________________________________
‘Dessin’
p.18
Design as Visualization
The other general notion of design, ‘dessin’, corresponds to the conspicuous side of the design process. Its synonyms include sketch, drawing, and delineation. These visible manifestations of the otherwise secret design process enable the designer to communicate to others what is going on inside her head. They also play a crucial role in the ideal-real transformation. They enable what Rudolph Arnheim calls “visual thinking,” the chief means by which the designer's mental processes move forward. A sketch of a product concept issues from the designer's imagination. The sketch, in turn, informs――or rather, re-forms and redirects――the designer's imagination. This result in a revised sketch, which in turn, revises the imagination yet again. This feedback loop, of private and public visualizations, continues throughout the design process. The conspicuous sketch is as important as the covert concept in determining the outcome of the design process. Visualization is so endemic to the design process that schools of design prior to the 20th century were little more than schools of drawing.
p.20
Design as Embellishment
‘Dessin’, however, implies more than visualization. Other synonyms include pattern, motif, decoration,and ornament. Before the Industrial Revolution reaches its full stride, the closest things to an industrial design course in one of those old-fashioned design schools mentioned earlier would have involved only superficial matters. Students would practice the design of decorative patterns or motifs for the embellishment of otherwise plain surfaces of fabrics, wallpaper, furniture, and architectural trim, as well as the largely handcrafted products of the period. Superficial decoration of product surfaces did not give way to concern for innovation and the underlying form of products until the advent of the Modern Design movement less than a century ago.
(‘Watches tell more than time : product design, information, and the quest for elegance’, written by Del Coates, publisher McGraw-Hill, p.18, p.20)
____________________________________
saturate, incubate, and illuminate
"You need to understand how the human mind works. The mind has three elementary phases it goes through when it's thinking: saturate, incubate, and illuminate. Although they generally occur in order, all three are continuous processes, so your mind is constantly cycling through all three phases. The saturation phase occurs when the mind if first exposed to something. When you're planning a new mission, you're saturating your mind with facts, assumptions, insights and/or sensory cues - ergo, the saturation phase. the next phase is incubation. This is a critical phase if you ever want to come up with something innovative. The mind needs time to incubate. During this phase the mind subconsciously sorts through all of the inputs and begins to recognize patterns and snap those patterns together to come up with concepts and ideas. This is why you may have heard people say, 'I need to sleep on it' before making a major decision. It's not the sleep per se that they need: it's the time to allow their mind to sort through information and search for patterns. The recognition of patterns that occurs during the incubation phase produces the illumination phase, also known as 'eureka' moments, when your mind begins to translate those patterns and form the into actionable ideas. Saturate, incubate, illuminate - it's how the mind works, and it's probably the main reason why you have lost so much sleep over the years. The best thing you can do is to keep a pen and paper by your bed. Writing down your thoughts while you're incubating and illuminating should help to temporarily get the off your mind and back to sleep." (Page 70)
(THE MISSION, THE MEN, AND ME: LESSONS FROM A FORMER DELTA FORCE COMMANDER, By Pete Blaber, p.70)
____________________________________
Screenwriting for dummies, 2nd edition
by Laura Schellhardt
Adjunct professor, Northwestern university
foreword by John Logan
2008
p.37
A skilled writer must possess three qualities: the desire to tell stories, the experience to round out those stories, and the stamina to see them through to completion. You may come into the world with these qualities or discover them later in life. Most new writers possess the desire and some experience, but few possess the endurance necessary to finish the work. They have a storyteller's imagination, but they lack a sense of craft. Without that sense, their stories remain ideas forever for meander around on the page until the writers give up. This chapter takes a closer look at natural talent and offers advice on how to further your own. It then outlines techniques designed to funnel that talent into a page. In short, it's a chapter on screenwriting first as an art and then as a craft.
A skilled writer must possess three qualities:
the desire to tell stories,
the experience to round out those stories, and
the stamina to see them through to completion.
p.38
A look at the creative process
At first glance, creativity involves problem solving ── or, in other words, questioning validity and suggesting alternatives. I don't mean to imply, however, that creative people sit around waiting for problems to arise; they don't. Creative people are inherently curious. They pose questions that no one else has thought or dared to ask. In this way, creative people seek out problems and attempt solutions. Writers are no different. The most common problems that a writer faces are Which story do I tell? and How do I tell it?
In recent years, scientists and sociologists from all over the world have taken an interest in the process of creative problem solving. They believe that many people encounter the same five phenomena on the journey toward a solution. They have labeled these five stages as:
•─ first insight: The stage in which an idea or a question suggests itself. This is the moment that a writer discovers a story or the seeds of one.
•─ saturation or the “input” stage: The period of study or investigation that ensures. Any research a writer does ── interviews, people-watching, reading, studying other films, daydreaming, and so on ── falls under the category of saturation.
•─ incubation: A period of reflection to process the new information. For a writer, this time generally involves working through the idea on a page, sharing the idea with friends, and good old-fashioned waiting for inspiration.
•─ illumination: A moment of inspiration when a possible solution suggests itself. When a writers talk about the muse, they really mean the moment of illumination.
•─ verification or evaluation stage: The testing period, during which the individual, in this case the writer, determines whether his solution really works.
•─ [[ feed-back loop: take the information, knowledge, tested solution as (soil, fertilizer, mulch - source material) and feed them back into previous stages; new information, knowledge and ... should be integrated into learned experience; how to do that? I am not sure. by write about it? by doing it [workshop, exercise]? by repetition [production]? by looking for other ways to apply the knowledge in a different setting?; the whole process is called creative problem solving cycle [CPSC], or, creative problem solving iterative loop [CPSIL]; lastly, if you can, archive the knowledge and the experience; so that other people can use your instruction as a guide or a cookbook. ]]
None of these stages has any set length of time, although most writers experience illumination as a brief, often unexpected flash. Some writers spend years researching a story; some only a few days. Some find inspiration right away, but for others, the incubation time is endless. In any case, though no two writers arrive at a story in the same way, they tend to share these five stages. So the next time you're tearing out your hair because a story eludes you, never fear. It's part of the process.
Screenwriting for dummies, 2nd edition
by Laura Schellhardt
Adjunct professor, Northwestern university
foreword by John Logan
2008
____________________________________
Robert Greene, Mastery, 2012
pp.184─185
B. Allow for serendipity
The brain is an instrument developed for making connections. It operates as a dual processing system, in which every bit of information that comes in is at the same time compared to other information. The brain is constantly searching for similarities, differences, and relationships between what it processes. Your task is to feed this natural inclination, to create the optimal conditions for it to make new and original associations between ideas and experiences. And one of the best ways to accomplish this is by letting go of conscious control and allowing chance to enter into the process.
The reason for this is simple. When we are consumed with a particular project, our attention tends to become quite narrow as we focus so deeply. We grow tense. In this state, our mind responds to trying to reduce the amount of stimuli we have to deal with. We literally close ourselves off from the world in order to concentrate on what is necessary. This can have the unintended consequence of making it harder to for to see other possibilities, to be more open and creative with our ideas. When we are in a more relaxed state, our attention naturally broadens and we take in more stimuli.
Many of the most interesting and profound discoveries in science occur when the thinker is not concentrating directly on the problem but is about to drift off to sleep, or get on a bus, or hears a joke ── moments of unstrained attention, when something unexpected enters the mental sphere and triggers a new and fertile connection. Such chance associations and discoveries are known as serendipity ── the occurrence of something we are not expecting ── and although by their nature you cannot force them to happen, you can invite serendipity into the creative process by taking two simple steps.
The first step is to widen your search as far as possible. In the research stage of your project, you look at more than what is generally required. You expand your search into other fields, reading and absorbing any related information. If you have a particular theory or hypothesis about a phenomenon, you examine as many examples and potential counter examples as humanly possible. It might seem tiring and inefficient, but you must trust this process. What ensues it that the brain becomes increasingly excited and stimulated by the variety of information. As William James expressed it, the mind “transitions from one idea to another ... the most unheard of combination of elements, the subtlest associations of analogy; in a word, we seem suddenly introduced into a seething cauldron of ideas, where everything is fizzling and bobbling about in a state of bewildering activity.” A kind of mental momentum is generated, in which the slightest chance occurrence will spark a fertile idea.
The second step is to maintain an openness and looseness of spirit. In moments of great tension and searching, you allow yourself moments of release. You take walks, engage in activities outside your work (Einstein played the violin), or think about something else, no matter how trivial. When some new and unanticipated idea now enters your mind, you do not ignore it because it is irrational or does not fit the narrow frame of your previous work. You give it instead full attention and explore where it leads you.
(Mastery / Robert Greene., 1. successful people., 2. success., 3. self-actualization (psychology), includes bibliographical references, BF637.S8G695 2012, 158─dc23, 2012027195, )
____________________________________
See
The Homeostatic Principles (GPoSD)
for related thread.
____________________________________
pp.120—122
Köhler
Intelligent problem-solving is manifested among animals most effectively in Köhler's experiments on chimpanzees, whose behaviour already presents the characteristic stages through which, according to Poincaré, discovery is achieved in mathematics. I have already mentioned the first: the appreciation of a problem. A chimpanzee in a cage within sight of a bunch of banana out of its reach neither makes any futile effort to get hold of it by sheer force, nor abandons its desire of acquiring the prize. It settles down instead to an unusual calm, while its eyes survey the situation all round the target; it has recognized the situation as problematical and is searching for a solution.1 We may acknowledge this (using the terminology of Wallas based on Poincaré) as the stage of Preparation.2
In the most striking cases of insight observed by Köhler, this preparatory stage is suddenly followed by intelligent action. Sharply breaking its calm, the animal proceeds to carry out a stratagem by which it secures its aim, or at least shows that it has grasped a principle by which this can be done. Its unhesitating manner suggests that it is guided by a clear conception of the whole proposed operation. This conception is its discovery, or at least——since it may not always prove practicable——its tentative discovery. We may recognize in its coming the stage of Illumination. Since the practical realization of the principle discovered by insight often presents difficulties which may even prove insurmountable, the manipulations by which the animal puts his insight to the test of practical realization may be regarded as the stage of Verification.
Poincaré
Actually, Poincaré observed four stages of discovery: Preparation, Incubation, Illumination, Verification.3 But the second of these, Incubation, can be observed only in a rudimentary form in the chimpanzees. Yet the observation described in some detail by Köhler, in which one of his animals sustained its effort of solving a problem even while otherwise occupied for a time,4 anticipate to a remarkable extent the process of incubation: that curious persistence of heuristic tension through long periods of time, during which the problem is not consciously entertained.
(Polanyi, Michael. 1958, Personal knowledge, Q175.P82)
(Personal knowledge : toward a post-critical philosophy, by Michael Polanyi, copyright © 1958, pp.120—122)
____________________________________
On plan, planning and planners.
Russell L. Ackoff wrote in his TEXT book, ‘Ackoff's best : his classic writings on management’, on planning from pages 100-101, and the three type of planners, from pages 110-111::
Planning is clearly a decision-making process; but equally clearly not all decision making is planning. Not so clear, however, are the characteristics that make it special kind of decision making. It is special in three ways.
1. Planning is something we do in advance of taking action; that is, it is ANTICIPATORY DECISION-MAKING. It is a process of deciding what to do and how to do it before action is required. If we desire a certain state of affairs at some future time and it takes time to decide what to do and how to do it, we must make the necessary decisions before taking action. If these decisions could be taken quickly without loss of efficiency, planning would not be required.
2. Planning is required when the future state that we desire involved a set of inter-dependent de-cisions; that is, a SYSTEM of DE-CISIONs. A set of de-cisions forms a system if the effect of each de-cision in the set on the relevant outcome depends on at least one other de-cision in the set. Some of the de-cisions in the set may be complex, others simple. But the principal complexity in planning derives from the inter-related-ness of the de-cisions rather than from the de-cisions themselves; for example, in planning a house, a decision to place the living room in a particular corner has an effect on the location of every other room and hence on the "performance" of the house as a whole.
Set of decisions that require planning have the following important characteristics:
a. They are too large to handle all at once. Therefore planning must be divided into stages or phases that are performed either sequentially by one decision-making body, or simultaneously by different bodies, or by some combination of sequential and simultaneous efforts. Planning must be staged or, put another way, it must itself be planned.
b. The set of necessary de-cisions cannot be sub-divided into in-dependent sub-sets. Hence a planning problem can-not be broken down into in-dependent sub-planning problems. The sub-planning problems must be inter-related. This means that de-cisions made early in the planning process must be taken into account when making de-cisions later on the in the process and THE EARLIER De-CISIONS must be received in LIGHT of the DE-cisions make sub-sequent to THEM. This is why planning must be carried out before action is required.
These two systemic properties of planning make clear why planning is not an act but a PROCESS, a process that has no natural conclusion or end point. It is a process that (it is to be hope) approaches a "solution," but it never quite gets there, for two reasons. First, there is no limit to the amount of reviewing of previous de-cisions that is possible. The fact that action is eventually required, however, make it necessary to settle for what one has at some point in time. Second, both the system being planned for and its environment change during the planning process, and it is therefore never quite possible to take all such changes into account. The need to continuously update and "maintain" a plan derives in part from that fact.
3. Planning is a process that is directed toward producing one or more future states which are desired and which are not expected to occur unless something is done. Planning is thus concerned both with avoiding in-correct actions and with reducing the frequency of failure to exploit opportunities. Obviously, if one believes that the natural course of events will bring about all that is desired, there is no need to plan. Thus planning always has both a pessimistic and an optimistic component. The pessimism lies in the belief that unless something is done a desired future state is not likely to occur. The optimism lies in the belief that something can be done to increase the chance that the desired state will occur.
(Ackoff's best : his classic writings on management, Russell L. Ackoff., © 1999, pp.100-101.)
____________________________________
On re-active, pre-active, and inter-active planners, pages 110-111, Russell L. Ackoff wrote::
Re-active planners focus on increasing their ability to undo changes that have already occured. Pre-active planners focus on increasing their ability to forecast changes that will occur. Inter-active planners focus on increasing their ability to control or influence change or its effects, and to respond rapidly and effectively to changes they cannot control, thereby decreasing their need to forecast.
Re-active planning is primarily concerned with removal of threats; pre-active planning is concerned with exploitation of opportunities. Inter-active planning is concerned with both equally but it assumes that threats and opportunities are created by what an organization does as well as by what is done to it.
Re-active planners try to do well enough, to “satisfice,” to enable the organization planned for to SURVIVE. Preactive planners try to do as well as possible, to “optimize,” to enable the organization planned for to GROW. Inter-active planners try to do better in the future than the best that is currently possible, to “idealize,” to enable the organization planned for to develop. An organization develops when it increases its ability and desire to satisfy the needs and desires of those who depend on it, its stakeholders.
(Ackoff's best : his classic writings on management, Russell L. Ackoff., © 1999, pp.110-111.)
____________________________________
Dorothy Sayers (mmm)
The Plan
Page 49,
G. A. Blaauw points out that creative effort involves three
distinct phases:
(1) architecture,
(2) implementation, and
(3) realization.
Page 15,
Dorothy Sayers divides creative activity into three stages:
1. the idea (architecture),
2. the implementation (implementation), and
3. the interaction (realization).
(The mythical man-month : essays on software engineering, Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. -- Anniversary ed., © 1985, Software engineering, p.49, p.15.)
____________________________________
p.15
Dorothy Sayers, in her excellent book, "The Mind of the Maker," divides creative activity into three stages: the idea, the implementation, and the interaction.
The idea (1)
“A book, then or a computer, or a program comes into existence first as an ideal construct, built outside time and space, but complete in the mind of the author.”
The implementation (2)
“It is realized in time and space, by pen, ink, and paper, or by wire, silicon, and ferrite.”
The interaction (3)
“The creation is complete when someone reads the book, uses the computer, or runs the program, thereby interacting with the mind of the maker.”
This description, which Miss Sayers uses to illuminate not only human creative activity but also the Christian doctrine of the Trinity (tri=3) (adopted from Greek philosophy), will help us in our present task.
For the human makers of things, the incompletenesses and inconsistencies of our ideas become clear only during implementation. Thus it is that writing, experimentation, "working out" are essential disciplines for the theoretician.
In many creatives activities the medium of execution is intractable. Lumber splits; paints smear; electrical circuits ring. These physical limitations of the medium constrain the ideas that may be expressed, and they also create unexpected difficulties in the implementation.
Implementation, then, takes time and sweat both because of the physical media and because of the inadequacies of the underlying ideas. We tend to blame the physical media for most of our implementation difficulties; for the media are not "ours" in the way the ideas are, and our pride colors our judgement.
(The mythical man-month : essays on software engineering, Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. -- Anniversary ed., © 1985, Software engineering, p.15 )
____________________________________
architecture, implementation, and realization.
p.49 As Blaauw points out, the total creative effort involves three dis
tinct phases:
(1) architecture,
(2) implementation, and
(3) realization.
It turns out that these can in fact be begun in parallel and proceed simultaneously.
(The mythical man-month : essays on software engineering, Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. -- Anniversary ed., © 1985, Software engineering, p.15, p.49 )
____________________________________
‘Dessein’
pp.15-16
Designing as Planning
The French have made the various notions of design easier to put into perspective by retaining two slightly different words, ‘dessein’ and ‘dessin’, for two quite different concepts, for which English-speakers have only one. In the broadest sense, the French distinguish between a private side of the design process, visible only to the mind's eye of the designer, and public expressions of it, visible to anyone.
‘Dessein’ pertains to the covert aspect of design. Its synonyms include aim, contemplate, aspire, envision, plan, project, propose, resolve, scheme, and speculate. It is strictly imaginary and intangible. More important, this aspect of design involves a future-oriented frame of mind, often laced with hope and idealism. We are all born designers in this sense, without need of formal schooling. You exercise your intuitive design skills in everything you do, from contemplating what ‘better’ color to paint the living room to choosing the ‘best’ thing to wear. You design next summer's vacation, too, as you consider options of where to go, when to go, and how much to spend――and select from among them. You might have begun a long-range design project by planning your retirement, even if all you have done so far is open a saving account.
(‘Watches tell more than time : product design, information, and the quest for elegance’, written by Del Coates, publisher McGraw-Hill, pp.15-16)
____________________________________
‘Dessin’
p.18
Design as Visualization
The other general notion of design, ‘dessin’, corresponds to the conspicuous side of the design process. Its synonyms include sketch, drawing, and delineation. These visible manifestations of the otherwise secret design process enable the designer to communicate to others what is going on inside her head. They also play a crucial role in the ideal-real transformation. They enable what Rudolph Arnheim calls “visual thinking,” the chief means by which the designer's mental processes move forward. A sketch of a product concept issues from the designer's imagination. The sketch, in turn, informs――or rather, re-forms and redirects――the designer's imagination. This result in a revised sketch, which in turn, revises the imagination yet again. This feedback loop, of private and public visualizations, continues throughout the design process. The conspicuous sketch is as important as the covert concept in determining the outcome of the design process. Visualization is so endemic to the design process that schools of design prior to the 20th century were little more than schools of drawing.
p.20
Design as Embellishment
‘Dessin’, however, implies more than visualization. Other synonyms include pattern, motif, decoration,and ornament. Before the Industrial Revolution reaches its full stride, the closest things to an industrial design course in one of those old-fashioned design schools mentioned earlier would have involved only superficial matters. Students would practice the design of decorative patterns or motifs for the embellishment of otherwise plain surfaces of fabrics, wallpaper, furniture, and architectural trim, as well as the largely handcrafted products of the period. Superficial decoration of product surfaces did not give way to concern for innovation and the underlying form of products until the advent of the Modern Design movement less than a century ago.
(‘Watches tell more than time : product design, information, and the quest for elegance’, written by Del Coates, publisher McGraw-Hill, p.18, p.20)
____________________________________
saturate, incubate, and illuminate
"You need to understand how the human mind works. The mind has three elementary phases it goes through when it's thinking: saturate, incubate, and illuminate. Although they generally occur in order, all three are continuous processes, so your mind is constantly cycling through all three phases. The saturation phase occurs when the mind if first exposed to something. When you're planning a new mission, you're saturating your mind with facts, assumptions, insights and/or sensory cues - ergo, the saturation phase. the next phase is incubation. This is a critical phase if you ever want to come up with something innovative. The mind needs time to incubate. During this phase the mind subconsciously sorts through all of the inputs and begins to recognize patterns and snap those patterns together to come up with concepts and ideas. This is why you may have heard people say, 'I need to sleep on it' before making a major decision. It's not the sleep per se that they need: it's the time to allow their mind to sort through information and search for patterns. The recognition of patterns that occurs during the incubation phase produces the illumination phase, also known as 'eureka' moments, when your mind begins to translate those patterns and form the into actionable ideas. Saturate, incubate, illuminate - it's how the mind works, and it's probably the main reason why you have lost so much sleep over the years. The best thing you can do is to keep a pen and paper by your bed. Writing down your thoughts while you're incubating and illuminating should help to temporarily get the off your mind and back to sleep." (Page 70)
(THE MISSION, THE MEN, AND ME: LESSONS FROM A FORMER DELTA FORCE COMMANDER, By Pete Blaber, p.70)
____________________________________
Screenwriting for dummies, 2nd edition
by Laura Schellhardt
Adjunct professor, Northwestern university
foreword by John Logan
2008
p.37
A skilled writer must possess three qualities: the desire to tell stories, the experience to round out those stories, and the stamina to see them through to completion. You may come into the world with these qualities or discover them later in life. Most new writers possess the desire and some experience, but few possess the endurance necessary to finish the work. They have a storyteller's imagination, but they lack a sense of craft. Without that sense, their stories remain ideas forever for meander around on the page until the writers give up. This chapter takes a closer look at natural talent and offers advice on how to further your own. It then outlines techniques designed to funnel that talent into a page. In short, it's a chapter on screenwriting first as an art and then as a craft.
A skilled writer must possess three qualities:
the desire to tell stories,
the experience to round out those stories, and
the stamina to see them through to completion.
p.38
A look at the creative process
At first glance, creativity involves problem solving ── or, in other words, questioning validity and suggesting alternatives. I don't mean to imply, however, that creative people sit around waiting for problems to arise; they don't. Creative people are inherently curious. They pose questions that no one else has thought or dared to ask. In this way, creative people seek out problems and attempt solutions. Writers are no different. The most common problems that a writer faces are Which story do I tell? and How do I tell it?
In recent years, scientists and sociologists from all over the world have taken an interest in the process of creative problem solving. They believe that many people encounter the same five phenomena on the journey toward a solution. They have labeled these five stages as:
•─ first insight: The stage in which an idea or a question suggests itself. This is the moment that a writer discovers a story or the seeds of one.
•─ saturation or the “input” stage: The period of study or investigation that ensures. Any research a writer does ── interviews, people-watching, reading, studying other films, daydreaming, and so on ── falls under the category of saturation.
•─ incubation: A period of reflection to process the new information. For a writer, this time generally involves working through the idea on a page, sharing the idea with friends, and good old-fashioned waiting for inspiration.
•─ illumination: A moment of inspiration when a possible solution suggests itself. When a writers talk about the muse, they really mean the moment of illumination.
•─ verification or evaluation stage: The testing period, during which the individual, in this case the writer, determines whether his solution really works.
•─ [[ feed-back loop: take the information, knowledge, tested solution as (soil, fertilizer, mulch - source material) and feed them back into previous stages; new information, knowledge and ... should be integrated into learned experience; how to do that? I am not sure. by write about it? by doing it [workshop, exercise]? by repetition [production]? by looking for other ways to apply the knowledge in a different setting?; the whole process is called creative problem solving cycle [CPSC], or, creative problem solving iterative loop [CPSIL]; lastly, if you can, archive the knowledge and the experience; so that other people can use your instruction as a guide or a cookbook. ]]
None of these stages has any set length of time, although most writers experience illumination as a brief, often unexpected flash. Some writers spend years researching a story; some only a few days. Some find inspiration right away, but for others, the incubation time is endless. In any case, though no two writers arrive at a story in the same way, they tend to share these five stages. So the next time you're tearing out your hair because a story eludes you, never fear. It's part of the process.
Screenwriting for dummies, 2nd edition
by Laura Schellhardt
Adjunct professor, Northwestern university
foreword by John Logan
2008
____________________________________
Robert Greene, Mastery, 2012
pp.184─185
B. Allow for serendipity
The brain is an instrument developed for making connections. It operates as a dual processing system, in which every bit of information that comes in is at the same time compared to other information. The brain is constantly searching for similarities, differences, and relationships between what it processes. Your task is to feed this natural inclination, to create the optimal conditions for it to make new and original associations between ideas and experiences. And one of the best ways to accomplish this is by letting go of conscious control and allowing chance to enter into the process.
The reason for this is simple. When we are consumed with a particular project, our attention tends to become quite narrow as we focus so deeply. We grow tense. In this state, our mind responds to trying to reduce the amount of stimuli we have to deal with. We literally close ourselves off from the world in order to concentrate on what is necessary. This can have the unintended consequence of making it harder to for to see other possibilities, to be more open and creative with our ideas. When we are in a more relaxed state, our attention naturally broadens and we take in more stimuli.
Many of the most interesting and profound discoveries in science occur when the thinker is not concentrating directly on the problem but is about to drift off to sleep, or get on a bus, or hears a joke ── moments of unstrained attention, when something unexpected enters the mental sphere and triggers a new and fertile connection. Such chance associations and discoveries are known as serendipity ── the occurrence of something we are not expecting ── and although by their nature you cannot force them to happen, you can invite serendipity into the creative process by taking two simple steps.
The first step is to widen your search as far as possible. In the research stage of your project, you look at more than what is generally required. You expand your search into other fields, reading and absorbing any related information. If you have a particular theory or hypothesis about a phenomenon, you examine as many examples and potential counter examples as humanly possible. It might seem tiring and inefficient, but you must trust this process. What ensues it that the brain becomes increasingly excited and stimulated by the variety of information. As William James expressed it, the mind “transitions from one idea to another ... the most unheard of combination of elements, the subtlest associations of analogy; in a word, we seem suddenly introduced into a seething cauldron of ideas, where everything is fizzling and bobbling about in a state of bewildering activity.” A kind of mental momentum is generated, in which the slightest chance occurrence will spark a fertile idea.
The second step is to maintain an openness and looseness of spirit. In moments of great tension and searching, you allow yourself moments of release. You take walks, engage in activities outside your work (Einstein played the violin), or think about something else, no matter how trivial. When some new and unanticipated idea now enters your mind, you do not ignore it because it is irrational or does not fit the narrow frame of your previous work. You give it instead full attention and explore where it leads you.
(Mastery / Robert Greene., 1. successful people., 2. success., 3. self-actualization (psychology), includes bibliographical references, BF637.S8G695 2012, 158─dc23, 2012027195, )
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See
The Homeostatic Principles (GPoSD)
for related thread.
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pp.120—122
Köhler
Intelligent problem-solving is manifested among animals most effectively in Köhler's experiments on chimpanzees, whose behaviour already presents the characteristic stages through which, according to Poincaré, discovery is achieved in mathematics. I have already mentioned the first: the appreciation of a problem. A chimpanzee in a cage within sight of a bunch of banana out of its reach neither makes any futile effort to get hold of it by sheer force, nor abandons its desire of acquiring the prize. It settles down instead to an unusual calm, while its eyes survey the situation all round the target; it has recognized the situation as problematical and is searching for a solution.1 We may acknowledge this (using the terminology of Wallas based on Poincaré) as the stage of Preparation.2
In the most striking cases of insight observed by Köhler, this preparatory stage is suddenly followed by intelligent action. Sharply breaking its calm, the animal proceeds to carry out a stratagem by which it secures its aim, or at least shows that it has grasped a principle by which this can be done. Its unhesitating manner suggests that it is guided by a clear conception of the whole proposed operation. This conception is its discovery, or at least——since it may not always prove practicable——its tentative discovery. We may recognize in its coming the stage of Illumination. Since the practical realization of the principle discovered by insight often presents difficulties which may even prove insurmountable, the manipulations by which the animal puts his insight to the test of practical realization may be regarded as the stage of Verification.
Poincaré
Actually, Poincaré observed four stages of discovery: Preparation, Incubation, Illumination, Verification.3 But the second of these, Incubation, can be observed only in a rudimentary form in the chimpanzees. Yet the observation described in some detail by Köhler, in which one of his animals sustained its effort of solving a problem even while otherwise occupied for a time,4 anticipate to a remarkable extent the process of incubation: that curious persistence of heuristic tension through long periods of time, during which the problem is not consciously entertained.
(Polanyi, Michael. 1958, Personal knowledge, Q175.P82)
(Personal knowledge : toward a post-critical philosophy, by Michael Polanyi, copyright © 1958, pp.120—122)
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On plan, planning and planners.
Russell L. Ackoff wrote in his TEXT book, ‘Ackoff's best : his classic writings on management’, on planning from pages 100-101, and the three type of planners, from pages 110-111::
Planning is clearly a decision-making process; but equally clearly not all decision making is planning. Not so clear, however, are the characteristics that make it special kind of decision making. It is special in three ways.
1. Planning is something we do in advance of taking action; that is, it is ANTICIPATORY DECISION-MAKING. It is a process of deciding what to do and how to do it before action is required. If we desire a certain state of affairs at some future time and it takes time to decide what to do and how to do it, we must make the necessary decisions before taking action. If these decisions could be taken quickly without loss of efficiency, planning would not be required.
2. Planning is required when the future state that we desire involved a set of inter-dependent de-cisions; that is, a SYSTEM of DE-CISIONs. A set of de-cisions forms a system if the effect of each de-cision in the set on the relevant outcome depends on at least one other de-cision in the set. Some of the de-cisions in the set may be complex, others simple. But the principal complexity in planning derives from the inter-related-ness of the de-cisions rather than from the de-cisions themselves; for example, in planning a house, a decision to place the living room in a particular corner has an effect on the location of every other room and hence on the "performance" of the house as a whole.
Set of decisions that require planning have the following important characteristics:
a. They are too large to handle all at once. Therefore planning must be divided into stages or phases that are performed either sequentially by one decision-making body, or simultaneously by different bodies, or by some combination of sequential and simultaneous efforts. Planning must be staged or, put another way, it must itself be planned.
b. The set of necessary de-cisions cannot be sub-divided into in-dependent sub-sets. Hence a planning problem can-not be broken down into in-dependent sub-planning problems. The sub-planning problems must be inter-related. This means that de-cisions made early in the planning process must be taken into account when making de-cisions later on the in the process and THE EARLIER De-CISIONS must be received in LIGHT of the DE-cisions make sub-sequent to THEM. This is why planning must be carried out before action is required.
These two systemic properties of planning make clear why planning is not an act but a PROCESS, a process that has no natural conclusion or end point. It is a process that (it is to be hope) approaches a "solution," but it never quite gets there, for two reasons. First, there is no limit to the amount of reviewing of previous de-cisions that is possible. The fact that action is eventually required, however, make it necessary to settle for what one has at some point in time. Second, both the system being planned for and its environment change during the planning process, and it is therefore never quite possible to take all such changes into account. The need to continuously update and "maintain" a plan derives in part from that fact.
3. Planning is a process that is directed toward producing one or more future states which are desired and which are not expected to occur unless something is done. Planning is thus concerned both with avoiding in-correct actions and with reducing the frequency of failure to exploit opportunities. Obviously, if one believes that the natural course of events will bring about all that is desired, there is no need to plan. Thus planning always has both a pessimistic and an optimistic component. The pessimism lies in the belief that unless something is done a desired future state is not likely to occur. The optimism lies in the belief that something can be done to increase the chance that the desired state will occur.
(Ackoff's best : his classic writings on management, Russell L. Ackoff., © 1999, pp.100-101.)
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On re-active, pre-active, and inter-active planners, pages 110-111, Russell L. Ackoff wrote::
Re-active planners focus on increasing their ability to undo changes that have already occured. Pre-active planners focus on increasing their ability to forecast changes that will occur. Inter-active planners focus on increasing their ability to control or influence change or its effects, and to respond rapidly and effectively to changes they cannot control, thereby decreasing their need to forecast.
Re-active planning is primarily concerned with removal of threats; pre-active planning is concerned with exploitation of opportunities. Inter-active planning is concerned with both equally but it assumes that threats and opportunities are created by what an organization does as well as by what is done to it.
Re-active planners try to do well enough, to “satisfice,” to enable the organization planned for to SURVIVE. Preactive planners try to do as well as possible, to “optimize,” to enable the organization planned for to GROW. Inter-active planners try to do better in the future than the best that is currently possible, to “idealize,” to enable the organization planned for to develop. An organization develops when it increases its ability and desire to satisfy the needs and desires of those who depend on it, its stakeholders.
(Ackoff's best : his classic writings on management, Russell L. Ackoff., © 1999, pp.110-111.)
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