Learning to have ideas
(Photo © all rights reserved by Robert Pollack via Flickr)
Last Thursday marked the second session in my Copywriting class at MCAD. We're in the "learning to have ideas" phase of the course, which is equally illuminating for teacher (me) and student (them). As background, it helps to understand that being an advertising copywriter is, "80% conceptual thinking and 20% finish carpentry," according to my old compatriot Khari Streeter. So this phase of the course is as much about developing a work ethic and practice of ideas as it is coming to grips with the fragile reality of creativity. (We'll get to the niceties of writing copy soon enough.)
Jack Foster and Robert Grudin and Rollo May have all written wonderful books on the subject of ideas.
How do we "have ideas?"
My old mentor Bill Miller (co-creator of the "Perception. Reality." campaign for Rolling Stone at Fallon) said, "The business of creativity is learning to survive rejection." So, stamina and willpower are definitely required. There's an insightful interview with noted screenwriting guru Robert McKee that quotes him: "The most important component of talent is perseverance - the will to write and rewrite in pursuit of perfection." Yes.
I told my students about the old jealousy Hollywood has of writers—since writers are the first to see any story come to life. Having ideas means willfully confronting the unknown. Who knows, maybe the role is even heroic on some level; which suggests a healthy ego and curiosity wouldn't hurt. Do what others will not. Robert Grudin said, "Creativity is dangerous." That sort of thing.
At any rate, it's also work. From Stephen King to Michael Chabon, the lesson is clear: to have ideas, you must actually have them regularly—and commit them. I think it was novelist Chabon who suggested a challenge like, "1,700 words a day or don't bother." Or as legendary London creative director Dave Trott's so clearly stated: If you're creative, create. The issue isn't so much form as it is function—whatever venue works, works—so long as you continue to produce ideas of merit.
Such is the state of "having ideas" in one small class of students in a 100 year old fine arts college in the upper midwest of America in the fall of the year 2009.
