Slowly, one at a time
Oh, hi friends!
Look! It’s Friday! EEEE!
Yesterday, my brain was swimming with to-dos ranging from “pay bill” to “put away clothes” to “write the first draft of that story” to “rewrite that song” to “get ready to host 15 people at your apartment in three hours” and so I did the only sane and rational thing: I took a three-hour nap.
Just kidding.
I wrote all 20 brain-itching items down on a 3-by-5 notecard. Then I picked one, and didn’t stop until it was done. Then I picked another, and didn’t stop until it was done.
I’m in the middle of the list now, so I gotta get back to it.
But getting the things out of my brain—and working through them slowly, one at a time gave me a much-needed sense of control. Hope this might work for you on a Friday, or any day.
How creativity works. You go up and down. And around.
From the Instagram of my friend Nina Strochlic, an incredible reporter (and human!) working at National Geographic. This is her shot of a stairway in Kampala, Uganda.
“I had no family, and here is this family,” he said. “I need the sparks that fly when two people collide. Clearly, I wanted to be seen, but, weirdly, I wasn’t a showoff. I don’t find the applause particularly satisfying. I knew I liked it because it brought me in regular contact with people. I also knew I didn’t know what I was doing.”
He set about getting his education in public. In his three years at Cambridge, he directed sixteen plays.
This New Yorker profile of Sam Mendes is a master class in directing and creative process. So good. His staging of The Ferryman is on Broadway right now. I saw it last week and if you like an epic three-hour family drama with 21 cast members, a live goose and a bunny, and a big payoff...get yourself there.
Oh boy. I can’t stop with The Greatest Showman. And I love a lyric video because, you know, I love lyrics!!! Here’s “This Is Me.”
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Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara