Inspiration to Creation Realization Disconnects
Posted: July 14th, 2011, 9:11 pm
I've contemplated for some time how to model the disconnects from inspiration to realizing a creative vision on the page to reader realization for some time now. Months since I identified the want and posed the question and years since I was introduced to the first clues. Six years ago the topic came up in a writing discussion elsewhere. The narrative arch was presented as a basic model. The arch resembles the St. Louis Gateway arch, a cantenary arch. The divide between inspiration to reader realization can seem that gargantuan. I wanted to bring it down to a manageable size.
A long road trip today gave me time to meditate and come up with further comparisons so I could own the complexity of realization disconnects. It all opened up through thought exercises.
I've noted how words' meanings can vary widely from individual to individual and consensus reality to consensus reality, sometimes shared somewhat, sometimes in complete disagreement, frequently vaguely and incompletely. Many words meanings are rarely shared in full mutual understanding. Too often many terms have contrary meanings and only context will indicate which is intended and meant.
Writing's many splendored lexicon is one example. Point of view, for instance. Any given writer uses the term as if it only has limited meaning that's mutual to all writers. Many writers use the abbreviations pov or POV to define a central or main character, a protagonist, or a focal character. Others use the term for facets of narrator-character-plot interrelationsips. I understand the term to encompass a spectrum of narrative attributes, though I use less shortened terms, narrative point of view distinguished from viewpoint character point of view.
Narrative point of view I use as shorthand for the many attributes of narrative point of view: grammatic person and number, tense, attitude, tone, reliability, psychic access and motility, tenor, and register; voice and craft facets. Point of view has other meanings central to narrative arts that are also central to other disciplines. Cinematography, and political and social rhetoric, for example, sociology, political geography, anthropology and archaeology, astronomy, and so on. Point of view meaning absolute or relative physical location, meaning opinion standpoint, meaning comparative perspective on and assumptions and conclusions of an observable phenomena, meaning a close and personal or distant and impersonal vantage point.
The real-world magic of terms is they might stand for and thus invoke complex topics that may require lengthy explanation to communicate the point. A place I worked a couple decades ago had a powerful air conditioning plant. Cost was no object, per se. When the upper floors of the building got too hot for customers' comfort, procedure was to notify management, management notified maintenance, maintenance adjusted thermostat settings. Shorthand: Please turn down the air conditioning. Management got it right. The disconnect happened at maintenance. They reduced the air conditioning output and it got hotter. Then a lot of blame gaming went on for awhile before the thermostat was adjusted; meanwhile, customers were hemorrhaging. Note, hemorrahaging says what I intend it to say, but its context is so imprecise it evokes contrary meanings.
A term's power to communicate meaning is proportional to its specific meaning and mutually shared meaning. Mundane used to mean one thing, for example. The opposite of metaphysical. Where mundane means the earthly realm, and metaphysical supernatural and/or paranormal realms. Mundane's at times artful and at times artless usage has added boring as another, contradictory meaning. In an absence of sufficient context, who knows what is meant. Perhaps an in-group who regulary use it for only one mutually accepted meaning.
An in-group who mutually share a term's meaning. I expect the greater at-large public is as unlikely to know what's meant by pov as denouement or some of the more obscure writing arcana essential to communicate complex writing concepts effectively, even among an in-group of writers. Pov is an arcane term in that regard. Arcane, speaking of misunderstanding terms' meanings.
Terms or words' meanings can be shared within an in-group that might make little if any sense to outsiders. Regional dialects and idioms are a classic example. The term for a carbonated soft drink varies from region to region; coke, pepsi (note lowercase nouns, those terms are generic idioms for soda pop in some regions, like xerox means a generic photostatic facsimile), pop, soda pop, soda, soft drink, cola, etc. What word or words have shared meanings among an in-group and outsiders is a key to understanding how disconnects happen. Idiom, in other words.
Frankly, I delight in idioms' power to characterize. Hereabouts, the locals pronounce a town's name the French dialect way. Say it wrong and be marked as a tourista. It's a competition thing with a town of the same name, Modern English pronunciation, in another locale.
Say a sole proprietor runs a bagel store. Run in that context is an idiom. Native English speakers by and large know exactly what's intended and what's meant. English second language speakers struggle to understand. Run, a verb, meaning a form of rapid ambulation. Does the manager run inside the store? Outside the store? Run, a verb, meaning operate machinery. Is the bagel store a machine? I expect run became a metaphor first, meaning manage, then perhaps that usage was trite for a awhile, before becoming a widely-used and taken-for-granted idiom.
Take a term like historic ficion. Most historical fiction writers and fans know what's intended and what's meant. Outside of the in-group, it's a confusing term. Historic fiction could mean pivotal fiction written in the past or pivotally significant fiction written in the present without any present-day connection whatsoever to historical events.
That's what causes creative vision disconnects. A writer's mind knows the idioms, intents, and meanings of an inspiration in the in-group of the self-collective conscious and nonconscious minds but struggles to capture it on the page, oftentimes taking shortcuts in the rush to get the inspiration onto the page, but not fully realizing the inspiration and becoming so acclimated to the ideas and intents and meanings that they stay in the writer's mind. A further disconnect occurs when readers struggle to interpret the imprecise meanings and contexts of words, terms, idioms, motifs, themes, and so forth, from small scale structures and aesthetics, like words, to large scale structures and aesthetics, like acts and themes.
Resolving disconnects means providing sufficient context so that concepts are reported sufficiently clearly to express their intents and meanings to the intended audience, ideally, a large and often diverse audience. Another aspect of rhetoric's decorum principle; suiting one's thoughts, words, and deeds, as a situation indicates, to the subject matter, the circumstances, and the audience.
We're a global audience here on Bransforums, and in the larger digital world as well. After all, isn't creative expression all about connecting with as large an audience as one's topics and themes and genres allow?
A long road trip today gave me time to meditate and come up with further comparisons so I could own the complexity of realization disconnects. It all opened up through thought exercises.
I've noted how words' meanings can vary widely from individual to individual and consensus reality to consensus reality, sometimes shared somewhat, sometimes in complete disagreement, frequently vaguely and incompletely. Many words meanings are rarely shared in full mutual understanding. Too often many terms have contrary meanings and only context will indicate which is intended and meant.
Writing's many splendored lexicon is one example. Point of view, for instance. Any given writer uses the term as if it only has limited meaning that's mutual to all writers. Many writers use the abbreviations pov or POV to define a central or main character, a protagonist, or a focal character. Others use the term for facets of narrator-character-plot interrelationsips. I understand the term to encompass a spectrum of narrative attributes, though I use less shortened terms, narrative point of view distinguished from viewpoint character point of view.
Narrative point of view I use as shorthand for the many attributes of narrative point of view: grammatic person and number, tense, attitude, tone, reliability, psychic access and motility, tenor, and register; voice and craft facets. Point of view has other meanings central to narrative arts that are also central to other disciplines. Cinematography, and political and social rhetoric, for example, sociology, political geography, anthropology and archaeology, astronomy, and so on. Point of view meaning absolute or relative physical location, meaning opinion standpoint, meaning comparative perspective on and assumptions and conclusions of an observable phenomena, meaning a close and personal or distant and impersonal vantage point.
The real-world magic of terms is they might stand for and thus invoke complex topics that may require lengthy explanation to communicate the point. A place I worked a couple decades ago had a powerful air conditioning plant. Cost was no object, per se. When the upper floors of the building got too hot for customers' comfort, procedure was to notify management, management notified maintenance, maintenance adjusted thermostat settings. Shorthand: Please turn down the air conditioning. Management got it right. The disconnect happened at maintenance. They reduced the air conditioning output and it got hotter. Then a lot of blame gaming went on for awhile before the thermostat was adjusted; meanwhile, customers were hemorrhaging. Note, hemorrahaging says what I intend it to say, but its context is so imprecise it evokes contrary meanings.
A term's power to communicate meaning is proportional to its specific meaning and mutually shared meaning. Mundane used to mean one thing, for example. The opposite of metaphysical. Where mundane means the earthly realm, and metaphysical supernatural and/or paranormal realms. Mundane's at times artful and at times artless usage has added boring as another, contradictory meaning. In an absence of sufficient context, who knows what is meant. Perhaps an in-group who regulary use it for only one mutually accepted meaning.
An in-group who mutually share a term's meaning. I expect the greater at-large public is as unlikely to know what's meant by pov as denouement or some of the more obscure writing arcana essential to communicate complex writing concepts effectively, even among an in-group of writers. Pov is an arcane term in that regard. Arcane, speaking of misunderstanding terms' meanings.
Terms or words' meanings can be shared within an in-group that might make little if any sense to outsiders. Regional dialects and idioms are a classic example. The term for a carbonated soft drink varies from region to region; coke, pepsi (note lowercase nouns, those terms are generic idioms for soda pop in some regions, like xerox means a generic photostatic facsimile), pop, soda pop, soda, soft drink, cola, etc. What word or words have shared meanings among an in-group and outsiders is a key to understanding how disconnects happen. Idiom, in other words.
Frankly, I delight in idioms' power to characterize. Hereabouts, the locals pronounce a town's name the French dialect way. Say it wrong and be marked as a tourista. It's a competition thing with a town of the same name, Modern English pronunciation, in another locale.
Say a sole proprietor runs a bagel store. Run in that context is an idiom. Native English speakers by and large know exactly what's intended and what's meant. English second language speakers struggle to understand. Run, a verb, meaning a form of rapid ambulation. Does the manager run inside the store? Outside the store? Run, a verb, meaning operate machinery. Is the bagel store a machine? I expect run became a metaphor first, meaning manage, then perhaps that usage was trite for a awhile, before becoming a widely-used and taken-for-granted idiom.
Take a term like historic ficion. Most historical fiction writers and fans know what's intended and what's meant. Outside of the in-group, it's a confusing term. Historic fiction could mean pivotal fiction written in the past or pivotally significant fiction written in the present without any present-day connection whatsoever to historical events.
That's what causes creative vision disconnects. A writer's mind knows the idioms, intents, and meanings of an inspiration in the in-group of the self-collective conscious and nonconscious minds but struggles to capture it on the page, oftentimes taking shortcuts in the rush to get the inspiration onto the page, but not fully realizing the inspiration and becoming so acclimated to the ideas and intents and meanings that they stay in the writer's mind. A further disconnect occurs when readers struggle to interpret the imprecise meanings and contexts of words, terms, idioms, motifs, themes, and so forth, from small scale structures and aesthetics, like words, to large scale structures and aesthetics, like acts and themes.
Resolving disconnects means providing sufficient context so that concepts are reported sufficiently clearly to express their intents and meanings to the intended audience, ideally, a large and often diverse audience. Another aspect of rhetoric's decorum principle; suiting one's thoughts, words, and deeds, as a situation indicates, to the subject matter, the circumstances, and the audience.
We're a global audience here on Bransforums, and in the larger digital world as well. After all, isn't creative expression all about connecting with as large an audience as one's topics and themes and genres allow?