so i actually conflated a few things in this post here– scaffolding as in project management, and scaffolding-by-sketching, which I'll argue is part of project management. I didn't get around to making that part very clear, but I'm sleepy and tired and I figured I'd be happier to hit post than to leave it languishing in the drafts. This is itself sketchy business. I expect my next ~50-100 posts to be similarly sketchy and I am making my peace with it. gn
Two things that I want to think more about, and I'm curious if you have a way to translate:
One, the scaffolding as sketching idea works great because it's possible to break down the bigger project into lego blocks that you can refine/practice before putting them back together.
Two, the idea of "keeping time with your body" which brings in other senses into the picture, sort of taking you out of your head and letting you relax a bit before re-analyzing things and integrating them. Maybe even in sketching, taking a step back and "seeing the picture" is the equivalent of that.
Is there a good way to apply "lego blocks" and "keeping time with your body" to writing something that isn't Tweet-sized, like say a short story or an essay or a novel? How would you go about making these scaffoldable?
I liked, among other things, the observation that drafts aren't false starts but more like sketches. One thing that I've enjoyed doing recently is to write my sketches by hand, rapidly, in my very hard to read handwriting. Something about that makes me forget myself, because I can't easily see what I've written etc. And when something clicks, that becomes the scaffolding for a proper draft that I do on computer: I'll read the notes, type some as is, riff in new ways in other parts, skim and drop others, etc. I get into a more emotional, more playful flow that way, and still get some time to stop and think and try different approaches. Anyway, love seeing you feel your way forward here!
Is that because not being able to read what you've just written keeps your inner critic out of the picture? So some sort of writing software that lets you see just the current line that you're working on and keeps scrolling up might do something similar?
maybe, run the experiment on yourself and see how you feel doing that vs handwriting vs dictating. there are probably more factors at play, eg walking while talking, the kinetic part of handwriting etc. but no idea!
In music, there is a term called audiation which means that you are able to hear the music in your head. Training this skill is about amplifying and translating that at first quiet voice in your mind. In the case of Gillespie, he developed an internal rhythm that doesn't depend on using a metronome. In Wooten's groove workshop, there is an exercise where you practice your mental awareness of timing. First you play to a beat on 1, 2, 3, 4 and then 2 and 4 and then only on 1, with every progression you need to become more focused to stay on time. It's like in The Inner Game of Tennis where the student made more progress learning to swing the racket by itself instead of relying on instructions by a coach.
On some music production subreddit, someone asked about the easiest way to get musical ideas down and make them easy to store and play back, keep track of them etc. Most people suggested project management apps, note-taking systems and DAWs, but there was one person who suggested to practice audiation -- you want to develop a sense of the melodies, chords and drums before you sit down at your desk where you write them down.
And I guess the point of sketching aren't the sketches but how the changes occur inside *you*. I was intrigued when Vivid Void said that he learned to meditate from drawing on the right side of the brain. I have never thought of sketching as some kind of meditation before that.
All of this is so good for the community of artists who are growing.
I remember so well the stages of songwriting and performing from not willing to even let others hear stuff, to scaredly getting up and playing in front of others, the revealing of my inner soul in the song more scary than being on stage (which I’d already fairly overcome in high school public speaking-but pubic singing and of my own stuff was levels harder). To moving to NYC and playing out and earning my way into ASCAP. And finally letting it go as a hoped for vocation after enough time watching others sail forward and me not. Decades later looking back
I cherish that development and it built a base I still live on. Whether you sail forward to the art form being your vocation, or find another vocation along the way and enjoy the art as an avocation, it’s all building valuable stuff inside you applicable to everything you do, and allowing you to enjoy certain details of life you see deeper than others while being ignorant of aspects they see better, and sharing them with each other.
The scaffolding stuff reminds me of a thing I’ve had bouncing around in my head for a while now that I haven’t satisfactorily articulated.
There’s the idea of making things legible which is a useful concept, but I think there’s also something to providing people with what I’ve been calling “handholds” for lack of a better term. The idea that sometimes people need some way to grasp onto a concept or idea or whatever to get engaged with it. I find metaphors really useful here.
And the scaffolding kinda reminds me of that. It’s not exactly the same but directionally related I think.
Perhaps I need some better scaffolding to flesh out this concept better so I can fully articulate it and write it down to share!
i'd say just try to talk/write about it however you can, go in tedious circles if you have to (often necessary for things that haven't yet been refined to simplicity, which typically can only happen after some back-and-forth)
Interesting article, I like this concept. I'd like to see a few more examples of how this plays out in the creative process. Like I'm guessing if you want to give people a handhold for Jurassic Park, you could say "Imagine an amusement park, except the attractions are dinosaurs, and then you have a bunch of people stuck in this park when the power goes out." Now that premise gives them a way to enter the world. So in a sense, an elevator pitch for a story or a melodic hook for a song could be a handhold? Though I'm thinking that's a bit too restrictive and there could be other ways to think about it, what do you think?
I think you'd find the chapter "Power of Perception" from 50 Cent's book "Hustle Harder Hustle Smarter" useful.
He talks about the shirtless motif that he couldn't abandon after his first album, and how he used that to inform the creative direction of his second album "The Massacre"
This post jogged my memory about it, and so I restacked your post from last month about Mark Miodownik's "Stuff Matters" with a short summary of that part of the chapter:
Great post , sometimes I get skeptical when I read some of the caveats at the beginning but often something that really resonates is awaiting inside
The laughing bit was a great think to put top of mind and something that made me think of some personal relationships (and a welcome reminder to rewatch before sunset)
The music part and the self-evaluation was interesting to read as well, I sometimes feel similarly regarding my own stuff but I it's more a feeling than something analytical like the gym people example.
I am scared of writing and put things on the internet for the fear of being wrong. My skepticism has stopped me from developing the flow of letting thoughts flow. So, just typing this without looking back and editing and just keep going. I have to get comfortable with doing things and what matters is who I became at the end of it, not the output. Posting without thinking anything else.
so i actually conflated a few things in this post here– scaffolding as in project management, and scaffolding-by-sketching, which I'll argue is part of project management. I didn't get around to making that part very clear, but I'm sleepy and tired and I figured I'd be happier to hit post than to leave it languishing in the drafts. This is itself sketchy business. I expect my next ~50-100 posts to be similarly sketchy and I am making my peace with it. gn
Two things that I want to think more about, and I'm curious if you have a way to translate:
One, the scaffolding as sketching idea works great because it's possible to break down the bigger project into lego blocks that you can refine/practice before putting them back together.
Two, the idea of "keeping time with your body" which brings in other senses into the picture, sort of taking you out of your head and letting you relax a bit before re-analyzing things and integrating them. Maybe even in sketching, taking a step back and "seeing the picture" is the equivalent of that.
Is there a good way to apply "lego blocks" and "keeping time with your body" to writing something that isn't Tweet-sized, like say a short story or an essay or a novel? How would you go about making these scaffoldable?
I liked, among other things, the observation that drafts aren't false starts but more like sketches. One thing that I've enjoyed doing recently is to write my sketches by hand, rapidly, in my very hard to read handwriting. Something about that makes me forget myself, because I can't easily see what I've written etc. And when something clicks, that becomes the scaffolding for a proper draft that I do on computer: I'll read the notes, type some as is, riff in new ways in other parts, skim and drop others, etc. I get into a more emotional, more playful flow that way, and still get some time to stop and think and try different approaches. Anyway, love seeing you feel your way forward here!
oh that's a very interesting angle on illegibility i gotta chew on :o
thx!
Is that because not being able to read what you've just written keeps your inner critic out of the picture? So some sort of writing software that lets you see just the current line that you're working on and keeps scrolling up might do something similar?
maybe, run the experiment on yourself and see how you feel doing that vs handwriting vs dictating. there are probably more factors at play, eg walking while talking, the kinetic part of handwriting etc. but no idea!
re: how he kept time with his entire body
In music, there is a term called audiation which means that you are able to hear the music in your head. Training this skill is about amplifying and translating that at first quiet voice in your mind. In the case of Gillespie, he developed an internal rhythm that doesn't depend on using a metronome. In Wooten's groove workshop, there is an exercise where you practice your mental awareness of timing. First you play to a beat on 1, 2, 3, 4 and then 2 and 4 and then only on 1, with every progression you need to become more focused to stay on time. It's like in The Inner Game of Tennis where the student made more progress learning to swing the racket by itself instead of relying on instructions by a coach.
On some music production subreddit, someone asked about the easiest way to get musical ideas down and make them easy to store and play back, keep track of them etc. Most people suggested project management apps, note-taking systems and DAWs, but there was one person who suggested to practice audiation -- you want to develop a sense of the melodies, chords and drums before you sit down at your desk where you write them down.
And I guess the point of sketching aren't the sketches but how the changes occur inside *you*. I was intrigued when Vivid Void said that he learned to meditate from drawing on the right side of the brain. I have never thought of sketching as some kind of meditation before that.
All of this is so good for the community of artists who are growing.
I remember so well the stages of songwriting and performing from not willing to even let others hear stuff, to scaredly getting up and playing in front of others, the revealing of my inner soul in the song more scary than being on stage (which I’d already fairly overcome in high school public speaking-but pubic singing and of my own stuff was levels harder). To moving to NYC and playing out and earning my way into ASCAP. And finally letting it go as a hoped for vocation after enough time watching others sail forward and me not. Decades later looking back
I cherish that development and it built a base I still live on. Whether you sail forward to the art form being your vocation, or find another vocation along the way and enjoy the art as an avocation, it’s all building valuable stuff inside you applicable to everything you do, and allowing you to enjoy certain details of life you see deeper than others while being ignorant of aspects they see better, and sharing them with each other.
The scaffolding stuff reminds me of a thing I’ve had bouncing around in my head for a while now that I haven’t satisfactorily articulated.
There’s the idea of making things legible which is a useful concept, but I think there’s also something to providing people with what I’ve been calling “handholds” for lack of a better term. The idea that sometimes people need some way to grasp onto a concept or idea or whatever to get engaged with it. I find metaphors really useful here.
And the scaffolding kinda reminds me of that. It’s not exactly the same but directionally related I think.
Perhaps I need some better scaffolding to flesh out this concept better so I can fully articulate it and write it down to share!
i'd say just try to talk/write about it however you can, go in tedious circles if you have to (often necessary for things that haven't yet been refined to simplicity, which typically can only happen after some back-and-forth)
...and, written: https://travisnorthcutt.com/handholds/
hell yeah!!
Interesting article, I like this concept. I'd like to see a few more examples of how this plays out in the creative process. Like I'm guessing if you want to give people a handhold for Jurassic Park, you could say "Imagine an amusement park, except the attractions are dinosaurs, and then you have a bunch of people stuck in this park when the power goes out." Now that premise gives them a way to enter the world. So in a sense, an elevator pitch for a story or a melodic hook for a song could be a handhold? Though I'm thinking that's a bit too restrictive and there could be other ways to think about it, what do you think?
I think you'd find the chapter "Power of Perception" from 50 Cent's book "Hustle Harder Hustle Smarter" useful.
He talks about the shirtless motif that he couldn't abandon after his first album, and how he used that to inform the creative direction of his second album "The Massacre"
This post jogged my memory about it, and so I restacked your post from last month about Mark Miodownik's "Stuff Matters" with a short summary of that part of the chapter:
https://substack.com/@lancetmason/note/c-116267215?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=18kqw4
Great post , sometimes I get skeptical when I read some of the caveats at the beginning but often something that really resonates is awaiting inside
The laughing bit was a great think to put top of mind and something that made me think of some personal relationships (and a welcome reminder to rewatch before sunset)
The music part and the self-evaluation was interesting to read as well, I sometimes feel similarly regarding my own stuff but I it's more a feeling than something analytical like the gym people example.
I am scared of writing and put things on the internet for the fear of being wrong. My skepticism has stopped me from developing the flow of letting thoughts flow. So, just typing this without looking back and editing and just keep going. I have to get comfortable with doing things and what matters is who I became at the end of it, not the output. Posting without thinking anything else.