In school, whenever we were given some sort of wide-open creative writing assignment, like writing a poem on a topic of our choice, I'd usually get past the writer's block by writing about writing the assignment. You know, write a poem called, The Blank Page or something. I'm sure there's several students like that in every class, since it's such a convenient ploy: I'd like to think that Charlie Kaufman's Oscar nomination for Adaptation represented all of us.
This all comes to mind because today I saw a personalised license plate that read, "VANITPL8" (geddit? "vanity plate?") Once again reminded me how tempting it is to fill a creative void with a mind-bending self-reference. Of course, I used the technique to get out of writing assignments imposed on me; I think if it was an assignment that I had chosen to spend $250 for the privilege of doing, I could conjure up something a little more original.
No comments:
Post a Comment