At the start of his book Art Worlds, Howard S Becker quotes the following passage from Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope:

“It was my practice to be at my table every morning at 5.30a.m.; and it was also my practice to allow myself no mercy. An old groom, whose business it was to call me, and to whom I paid £5 a year extra for the duty, allowed himself no mercy. During all those years at Waltham Cross he was never once late with the coffee which it was his duty to bring me. I do not know that I ought not to feel that I owe more to him than to any one else for the success I have had. By beginning at that hour I could complete my literary work before I dressed for breakfast.”

Becker points out that the old groom played a vital role in the creative process that produced all those classic novels, even though he is far from the conventional image of a ‘creative person’. Trollope fits the Romantic image better: the solitary writer toiling away at his desk by candlelight. Yet without the old groom he would probably have overslept occasionally. That might not have seemed important at the time, but if we totted up the figures over a lifetime (something it would be fairly easy to do, given his famous habit of writing 1,000 words per hour) a lie-in once a fortnight could have cost Trollope several novels. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: Anthony Trollope

I wasn’t joking when I said I read a lot of poems - over the last few months I’ve read literally thousands of them, as the editor of Issue 34 of Magma poetry magazine. This is my first time as an editor, and it’s very interesting to be on the other side of the fence for a change. Having submitted lots of poems to magazines, like most poets I’ve received more rejections than acceptances. So it’s been a slightly surreal experience to be the person opening the letters and e-mails and making the judgements myself.

After ploughing through so many poems I have a new-found admiration for all those editors out there who keep the poetry world going. It’s exciting, challenging and eventually tiring work. I’m lucky because we rotate the editorship at Magma, which means I’ve handed over the baton to Tim Robertson for Magma 35, but I’m amazed to think of the enthusiasm and sheer stamina of editors who edit issue after issue single-handed.

I’m also hoping the experience will be useful for my own writing, by sharpening my critical judgement and helping me to weed out mediocrity in my drafts of poems. I wouldn’t have taken on the editorship unless I was fairly confident of my critical judgement, but having to get through so many poems has certainly forced me to focus my attention quickly on the essential qualities of a poem - Does it catch my attention and hold it? Does it have the spark of energy that brings it alive?

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: poetry

Thank you for visiting my blog, I hope you find something to inspire you.

My work is slightly unusual, so maybe a few words of introduction are in order. I’m a coach specialising in working with creative professionals, which means I’m lucky enough to spend a lot of time listening and talking to talented people engaged in fascinating work. They include freelance artists, writers, actors etc. as well as teams in ‘creative business‘ such as design, advertising, computer games and so on.

I’ve always been passionate about creativity of one kind or another, and believe it is essential to any truly rewarding work. So I found myself drawn to working with people who make creativity their full-time (or passionate part-time) business in this world.

These days, of course, creativity is becoming recognised as an essential ingredient in any successful business, and the ‘creative industries’ are becoming more significiant contributors to the economy in many countries. So my goal with Wishful Thinking is to help people take advantage of this opportunity and express their creativity to the fullest through their work - whether in an ‘artistic’ or ‘business’ context.

So creativity will feature prominently in this blog – ideas, stories, discoveries, even a few tips and techniques. Most of my coaching work is obviously confidential, but there may be projects I work on that other participants are happy for me to write about on this blog. I’m also nearing the end of a part-time MA in Creative and Media Enterprises, which will no doubt provide material for several posts.

Apart from coaching my own creative medium is poetry, and I’m rarely happier than when I’ve just finished a poem (or grumpier than when I can’t get the words to flow). I read a lot of poetry and have a little evangelical part of me that wants to share my enthusiasms, so expect a few mini-reviews of poets I enjoy.

As a coach, I’m very aware that a conversation is infinitely more creative than a monologue - so please feel free to pitch in with your opnions and experiences relevant to anything in my posts. And let me know if there are any subjects you’d particularly like me to cover.

With best (ahem) Wishes,

Mark

Technorati Tags: creative business, business coaching, creative thinking