Simmering... Three Voices of a Creator

Illustration: Oscar Ramos Orozco on 99u.com

I'm working on this play for the Sundown Collaborative, a small theatre half an hour north of Dallas in Denton, Texas. It is coming along. I have a handful of written scenes (which will surely be thrown out or mostly rewritten), pages of notes and most of all, a place in my brain where it sits and simmers ALL THE TIME.

Over time, I've learned to let things simmer. It is still a form of "working" and without it, my imaginative world shrinks to accommodate "practical" concerns. A better way to say it would be that if I don't let something kinda organically grown and evolve out of my brain, I tend to leap straight to editing and judging it. This makes it smaller, as an idea, and ultimately less interesting.

As it is that the world throws back in your face those things one struggles with at a given time, I came across this article by Tara Mohr about "the three voices within every creator..."

> the Inner Artist (sensitive and flexible; handles the coming up with stuff)

> the Inner Editor (trims and revises; shapes raw ideas into workable structures)

> the Inner Agent (handles marketing, distribution; figures out how to "sell" the ideas)

Ms. Mohr points out that, as creators, we get in trouble most of the time when we bring the wrong voice to the table on a given task. Bring the Editor in too early and originality is squelched. Bring the Artist to a business meeting and fail to hold on to opportunities.

As I work through the Sundown play, I'm content right now to let things simmer. The Artist is working. Simmering is a kind of work.