Branching Out - thoughts on creativity

I have been thinking about the creative process of writing for some time. One of the ideas that keeps recurring is the idea of exploring other disciplines as a way to create even more depth to what I do.

I recently came across a one-minute pitch for screenplays by Pilar Alessandra and realized that it could be adapted to make a one-minute pitch for stories and books. It also creates a great spine for the work.

As I considered further I realized that as an actor and coach I read a lot of works on becoming a better performer. In the book "The Power of the Actor" the author talks about the goals you choose for creating the depth of your character. That struck me as an idea that could also be used when creating my own characters.

As a student of water-colors, which I am just beginning, I realized that studying that discipline helped me look at the world around me in so many different ways.

When writing, no matter how we try to do otherwise, our stories are filtered through ourselves and the world as we know it. How much greater then would our work be if we changed the way we look at things by studying other disciplines. They all say much the same, but sometimes looking at the same things in a different way allows the 'light bulb' to go on. We then can create work that will influence others to see things in a broader spectrum for many generations to come. That is my idea of what creative work is all about.