How do you avoid repeating yourself, or falling into formula? How do you stay fresh?
Carefully, respectfully, observe yourself; if the pattern feels familar, go 180 degrees in the opposite direction.
Since I've got a character--driven process, each character and world is different. For that reason, I rarely repeat myself. I stay fresh by taking a break from world A to work on world B or character C to work on character D. I write what's screaming loudest, which means that something getting stale on the brain automatically shunts to the back burner.
I get bored with the same old same old; I don't have to make any special efforts to stay fresh.
It's that quirky sense of whimsy again. Old tricks are boring, new ones interesting.
Always find ways of re-inventing yourself. If you have tried something and it did not work for you in the beginning, think of another way round it. Remember people need to find you intriguing not boring. Work on your thoughts, culture, ethos and always learn how to appreciate others. It is not just about you although sometimes I wish it was.
By remembering what I wrote, but when this fails I do it by checking and re-checking to make sure I don't repeat something I've already written. I think it's okay to reiterate something as long as it's written in a different way or is referred back to something that was put down before. No one is perfect, but a writer has to be careful not to contradict what they have said. I've noticed that some do this, even the more famous ones at times. I think writers could easily get into the habit of thinking that an editor will catch their mistakes, but this is not a good idea.
I suspect I don't really stay fresh. Again, maybe it's a funtion of age that makes me rely pretty heavily on memory and past experience. I don't fall into formulas (I hope) too often because I'm so aware of them. For fiction, I mentally refer repeatedly to my earliest (high school) training in analysis with authors like Galsworthy, Dickens, Shakespeare--to name a motley group as examples.
By getting inspired by other projects and research. However, sometimes repetitive styles and patterns will get you noticed sooner -recognition!
By doing something i've never done before.......or doing something old in a new way.
Repeating yourself and falling into formula isn’t necessarily bad when you’re talking about a process- if something works you want to be able to duplicate it …as long as the solutions aren’t formulaic. I'm always pushing the envelope, so repeating myself has never been a real issue for me.
I stay fresh by taking in as much new visual information as possible to just be stimulated and then always creating something I’ve never seen before, or applying something familiar in a completely new way.
Repeating yourself and falling into formula isn’t necessarily bad when you’re talking about a process- if a particular thought pattern works to develop ideas, you want to be able to duplicate it …as long as the solutions it turns out aren’t one size fits all.
We stay fresh by combining smart people, good processes and hard work with directed playtime as well as rest and relaxation to let ideas percolate.
When I get into something, I immerse myself into it until it becomes an obsession. Once I have excorcised it from my being, I wait for the next obsession or seek it out.
Quite easy!! its boring to repeat so its alot more interesting tackling a job in a different way.
Looking at artwork or touring galleries of others typically freshens up your mind and stimulate your thought. I think that would help avoid repeating yourself or falling into formula. I try to avoid doing that to prevent myself from falling in a thinking trap or a formula of others, though. |
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