My "Damon"

Last year in Creative Writing, our instructor Sally Ito showed us this clip of Elizabeth Gilbert giving a talk about the concept of creativity. For some reason, Gilbert's talk really stuck with me throughout my time in the Creative Communications program, and after the completion of my IPP, I related to it even more.

About 6 minutes in, Gilbert talks about the belief that in some ancient cultures, creativity comes from a creative spirit (a "damon"in Ancient Greece, and a "genius" in Ancient Rome) as a way to separate the creator from the creation.

My creative process isn't one that fits in with the Creative Communications program. I hate being given deadlines. I hate being told when I have to be creative. Sure, I get my work done, but there have been many assignments I handed in with a heavy heart, knowing that I could have done better if it had more of my attention. My "genius" takes some coaxing (although sometimes, it has magically appeared).

My IPP began as a slow death (I know this sounds morbid, but stay with me). For the majority of summer, and then from September to December, I was slaving away typing viciously at a script I hated. The storyline had turned to crap, my dialogue was too heavy with very little action, my characters were getting flatter, and I had no idea how to end the damn thing. 40 pages is two hours of stage time. I was well over 40, and was still no where close to finishing. Instead, I was close to crying and considering the possibility that maybe I would be pitching another IPP for next year.

I want my IPP to be something I'm proud of. I want to be able to re-read it, and think, YES! THIS IS AWESOME! not WOW, THIS IS SH*T.

I loved my IPP idea. I knew I always wanted to do something tied into vampire fiction,and I've also always wanted to write a stage play. I used to start writing stage plays, but I'd never finish anything. Having a script as an IPP was finally a way for me to commit to finishing something, but as the months passed, I really started developing a resentment for Slaying Edmund.

Then, one night, it happened.

After a long day at my work placement, I was crawling into bed when my damon FINALLY tapped me on the shoulder.

"Where have you been?", I said.

"That's not important," he said.

"Well yah, it kind of is," I said, "Slaying Edmund is due in like a month and a half and my script is complete crap!"

"Don't worry about it," he said, "I have the whole thing worked out. The bad news is that you're pretty much going to have to start the whole thing over."

"Are you freaking kidding me?"

"I'm sorry."

"Can this wait until tomorrow? I'm tired."

"No, you're going to do it now."

And so, my damon dragged me out of bed and kept me up until 2am as I ferociously scribbled a rough bare-bone structure of "Slaying Edmund 2", which took me three weeks to pound out. And I love it.

So far, in my Creative Writing class this year, I have been getting a good response from my CreComm friends about "Slaying Edmund 2". I'm hoping to have the same support from my IPP adviser as well as the grade 9 drama students who helped me workshop Slaying Edmund 1.

And thank goodness I did the work-shopping at the high school, because those kids gave me a lot of ideas. Somehow, my damon managed to fit almost all of them into a single stage play.

Edmund Slain.