The math of creation?

And before you get all excited, no I did not unravel the Universal Formula, nor did I develop mathematical proof of the existence of a higher power. That's next week.

Here's how it when down: Frank Miller made THE SPIRIT which got panned by critics and "hardcore fans" of the original Will Eisner comics. This led Kyle Baker to do a post on his blog essentually making fun of the hardcore fandom. A link to that blog made it over to the Comic Discussion Forum of GaiaOnline, and someone posted their thoughts on the blog piece. So Baker created an account on Gaia and entered the conversation, not realizing that he wouldn't be dealing with a bunch of teenagers, but a collection of very sharp minds who don't appreciate being talked down to or being asked to stroke someone else's ego.

In the midst of the debacle the man who refers to himself as "The Greatest Cartoonist of all Time" posted this:

"I'm not sure how much creativity factors into it. Writing, art and music are crafts which can be learned. If you study anything, you can master it. There are rules to writing which can be learned, and there is a very specific formula and method to writing marketable stuff. It's when people stray from formula and try to be creative that they get into trouble."

This reminded me of a little chat I had over in Lis Fies' blog. There's a tendency for creators to compare themselves to other creator as opposed to actually describing themselves and their work. This is enforced by those whom the creators must pitch there work to and probably only have a minute or two to hook the person in question.

So let's take that and apply it to Baker's statement. It ends up being true. Producers want to make money. They want something that works. THE MATRIX worked so for years we heard about upcoming movies being compared to THE MATRIX. It was the new formula for what the people wanted and so it had to be cut open and examined. It's element had to be studied so that writers and directors and film makers would have a blueprint as to how to make a successful movie.

Yep, his statement is true. It's also horribly depressing that a cartoonist would even think such a thing. And so now we have a new dividing line.

Are you a creator who wants to be successful and is struggling to find that recipe for success?

Are you a creator who has a vision and wants to create for the sheer joy/need to create?

Are you about the love or the dollar? Sure you can have or want both, but at the end of the day why are you doing what you are doing?

You can be very good at creating and even successful, but not love it. It's work. It's how you pay your bills. That's fine. We all gotta eat. But it's all so much better, and the work you produce is so much better when you love what you're doing.

So what about that pesky creativity that'll get you in trouble if you let it? Embrace it. Stretch your imagination so that you can reach out through your work and stretch the imaginations of others. Don't try to figure out the formula for what's going to work. Art is not math. Art is emotion given form. Think about the creators you admire, the one's that create the formulas that others try to emulate. Do you think they were trying to just find what works and stick with that? I doubt it. They do what they do, and let us try to apply the numbers afterwards in out vain attempts to figure out 'how'd they do that'?

Lis asked me who do I compare myself to.

I answered: No one. Let the fuckers compare themselves to me.