The Great Escape
Happy Easter everyone - the pilot escaped for Turin at 2am this morning, so I'm facing the chocolate feeding frenzy singlehanded. A trail of hidden minieggs leading from their rooms bought me an extra half an hour in bed, but we've been up for several hours, the kids are bouncing off the walls, the hound ate my Green&Blacks egg (completely ignoring the sickly childrens' eggs) and I'm on my second pot of coffee ... Time for wellies and a long walk to burn off some of that energy.
If you grew up in the UK perhaps you remember the Great Egg Race? The incomparable Prof Heinz Wolff presented the show - teams of academics had to get a raw egg from point A to B by devising Heath Robinson type contraptions. The most elegant and elaborate machines invariably left their teams with literal and metaphorical egg on their face. Sometimes simple really is best.
Just getting from A to B can seem impossible whether it's a plot or life problem. The simple solution you sense is out there remains tantalisingly out of reach. Often the best thing you can do is step back and let the problem rest. The more I think about this island writer's retreat the more I like the idea. A couple of us have joked about it recently - imagine an Arvon type centre but in the sun with kids' clubs, spa, great food, company, wine ... Another idea to add to the collection of Grand Plans. Escape - getting away from the everyday is vital for any writer. Even if it's half an hour in a cafe with your notebook rather than two weeks on a beautiful island it all adds up. Every writer on creativity recommends retreat, regrouping, whether it's Pinkola Estes' idea of resting and 'attending to the bones' or Julia Cameron's recommendations for regular 'artist dates'. It's impossible to put out good work if you're not putting something back into yourself.
Knowing when to step back, give up, or push on comes down to gut instinct I think. The determination to succeed in the face of failure or rejection is something you need with any creative venture. We've talked before about the incredible popularity of 'Mamma Mia' - how it appeals to people of all ages. There's a documentary about the story of the show on TV tonight - apparently 18,000 people in 190 cities worldwide watch the show every single night. It's success is down to the determination of one woman - Judy Craymer the producer. 'It's been said that for a long time the story of Mamma Mia was the story of Judy Craymer and two blokes with beards who kept saying no' she said in an interview recently. It took her a decade to turn a 'no' into a 'yes' and get the boys from Abba on board. Getting from A to B takes vision, self-belief and determination - Mamma Mia is escapist entertainment at its best, and its real life story is an inspiring example of what can happen if you stick to your guns and follow your gut instinct.
TODAY'S PROMPT: What do you think is the secret of popular success? Why does something like Mamma Mia have global appeal? Feel good movies and books are needed now more than ever - a recent fiction forum in Marie Claire focused on 'Comfort Reads'. The books they chose were 'Captain Corelli', 'Adrian Mole', and titles by Alexander McCall Smith and Vikram Seth: 'page turners to snuggle up on the sofa with' ... 'comfort reads that give you a big dose of the feel-good factor'. Does popular necessarily mean low-brow? (Look at the success of the Da Vinci Code or Bridges of Madison County - incredibly successful books that crossed over to film, but they were panned by many critics). What would you need to happen to feel you have succeeded with your writing? I read an interesting idea the other day - what stops many people taking a chance creatively is not the fear of failure. If you fail, you just start over. But what if your success is only in the mediocre range? Today, why not step back and have a think about where you want to be, and the best way to approach any problems you are facing - how are you going to get from A to B?
