The Group Never Invents Anything
For a while now, one of my dreams has been to be a fly on the wall in a room full of TV writers, more specifically, in a development room where they’re creating the episode arcs and story lines for the season. I’ve always wondered at how creative one can be in a group. Obviously, there are some great shows that were created by groups (my favorite right now being The Good Wife), but could they have been better if writers were allowed to follow their own individual ideas (without the possibility of a producer, who oftentimes knows little about writing in general, immediately nixing them)?
The same goes for the horrible practice of workshopping. Oftentimes, writing instructors will have a class of writing students read samples of everyone’s work, then critique it out loud in front of the group. The problem with this is that most times the class participants don’t know much about writing, and even less about the publishing world. What professional would entrust his or her works of art to a non-professional? It’s ludicrous, in my opinion. True, we’re all readers, but we’re vastly different readers. Personally, I would put critique groups in this same category, unless you’re with people who are better than you. It wasn’t until I quit my critique group that I began to make sense of my writing. Hire someone to read your work—so you can honor what you’re trying to say.
I came upon this quote by John Steinbeck (in East of Eden), and in my experiences as a writer, I’m inclined to agree with him.
Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of a man. Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations, whether in music, in art, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man. And now the forces marshaled around the concept of the group have declared a war of extermination on that preciousness, the mind of man. By disparagement, by starvation, by repressions, forced direction, and the stunning hammerblows of conditioning, the free, roving mind is being pursued, roped, blunted, drugged. It is a sad suicidal course our species seems to have taken. And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about. I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind, for that is the one thing which can by inspection destroy such a system.
What do you think? Does this idea that the individual mind is a force to be reckoned with carry over into other careers and/or endeavors? I’m curious.
[Post image: People by datarec on stock.xchng]
