Welcome, friend! Today I love creativity and in all these years of sharing with you through the blog, I love have highlighted creators in all fields. Today, I have the pleasure to host Erik Godal. You may remember him from The Conundrum of Infinity book excerpt and interview, posted a few days back. What struck out to me about Erik was how he owns being a creative person. He is a storyteller through writing, music and film. I wanted to learn about what creativity looks like for him. Here’s what he had to say:
Creativity
A guest post by Erik Godal
Whenever someone asks about my profession, I say I’m creative. It’s a single word that not only sums up what I do but the way I am. It felt absurd to recite a hyphenated laundry list of titles after pursuing various things in life for many decades. All of them were served in a creative way by me. My life has been mainly focused on creative artistry, working in music, writing, and producing. Creativity is my drug. Being creative is my addiction. It’s the driving force behind my happiness and what propels me forward in life.
Human beings are inherently creative. We all exhibit creativity on a daily basis. From choosing which way we drive to work to our crazy dreams each night and everything in between. As children, we start to explore and understand how to engage with the world, unleashing our creativity like a flowing river. Once people reach adulthood, that river often turns into a trickle. Our place in the world becomes constrained, where responsibilities take precedence, stress reigns king, and we’ve lost the time or freedom we had as children.
Setup To Be Creative
Over several decades, I’ve uncovered techniques that help me maximize my creativity, which I’ve applied to music, writing, photography, and daily life. This applies even to simple tasks like production discussions, pitches, and solving challenging problems. As Rick Rubin emphasized in his book The Creative Act, creativity is a way of being, not just a momentary thing, and over the years I’ve come to the same conclusion. Below are some of the key things that I’ve found for helping me be creative.
Creativity Needs Freedom
Time is necessary to tap into the river of creativity. Carve out time for yourself every day to release your creativity, explore new ideas, and let your imagination run wild. Although longer is usually better, even a small amount is better than nothing at all. The initial freedom that your creativity requires is time. Another kind of freedom is the freedom from stress. Stress is a creativity killer. To help reduce stress, I’ve created simple habits like taking phone breaks and getting enough sleep, but nothing boosts my creativity like being in nature and exercise. Hiking and trail running is my primary secret for weaponizing creativity.
Creativity Is Selfish
To be truly innovative and artistic, it’s important to let go of expectations of success. The first priority for creative artists needs to be their personal fulfillment in their work. Being selfish is necessary. By creating just for the sake of creating, without worrying about success or outcome, you can uncover paths to art that would otherwise remain undiscovered. Your creativity and satisfaction are at risk if you’re fixated on creating a hit record or best-selling book, and you’re unlikely to achieve your goals. Put your focus on being the best artist you can be. Avoid tropes, stereotypes, and predictability in your creative work by pleasing yourself and not bowing to others’ expectations. Expectations are the gateway to compromised art and nobody wants to be a compromised artist, that this unless you’re only in it for making money.
The Power of Nature & Exercise
It’s vital to have both exercise and nature in your life. Studies have proven that being in nature releases serotonin and other hormones that make you feel good and reduce stress. Exercise can do the same thing, and even better. Exercise improves thinking and creativity by increasing the amount of oxygen that reaches the brain. Our DNA has a nomadic lifestyle built into it, and it rewards us with peak mental powers when we exercise thanks to millions of years of evolution. After all, we didn’t evolve from sitting at desks and behind the wheel of a car, which offers us no mental or health benefits. I attribute most of my best ideas, stories, and melodies to occurring while hiking in nature. In Princeton, it was common to see Albert Einstein walking for hours, deep in thought. He stated that he was most productive while walking. This did not surprise me. Nature and exercise have always been my go-to for boosting creativity, which I discovered even as I was a child. While exercising in nature, my creative mind has the boost and freedom to explore, create and solve problems. And when I land upon a good idea, I make an audio note on my phone.
Kernels of Truth
Weave truths into your creative ideas. Every creative idea holds a bit of truth, but the most exceptional ones incorporate original kernels that are not clichéd or commonly known tropes. Unearth intriguing and uncommon kernels that have yet to be discovered or learned. While stories can be as wild as you’d like, people tend to resonate with the truth. Adding truths, and even better, unique ones to your creative works can make them more compelling. For example, when writing fiction, I always look for nuggets of truth to use, in the structure of my story, be it facts, history, or other things you can find in real life. The more unique, the better, but the key is that these are things I didn’t makeup. I learned this important and fascinating technique from reading Michael Crichton’s novels long ago. He was skilled at using science and bits of interesting facts to make his stories even more engaging. The kernels of truth serve as my second secret for weaponizing creativity.
Ask Yourself a Question
Ideas exist everywhere you look. Pay attention with both your eyes and ears. Ask yourself what would happen with that idea. The idea of The Conundrum of Infinity came to me during one of my band’s European tours. We spent a lot of time sitting in hotels and traveling between gigs. So I decided to exercise my creative mind and went for a walk in the Montmartre Cemetery in Paris one day. And it all started with a question. In the scenario where I am a ghost, what would I be doing? This sparked further questioning. What kind of world would be suitable for ghosts? What rules would define such a world? Would that world communicate with ours? And most importantly was why. What is the rationale for the existence of such a world? As I came up with the story I also started looking for kernels of truth to embed in my story world. This resulted in an epic fantasy eight-book series about life after death. So my third secret for weaponizing creativity involves asking questions. Here are two other examples of how I came up with creative stories by asking questions and digging into kernels of truth once I had basic concepts.
Brighton’s Tea, my first book, was inspired by my trip to the island of Anguilla. The story was about a fountain of youth. It was during my visit that I found out about the natives’ legend of a fountain of youth. They also drank a concoction known as bush tea, which was believed to have healing properties for most illnesses. I then went to Norway, during a break from touring and was at a family cabin that sat hundreds of yards away from ancient Viking burial mounds. The result was story about a medical researcher who stumbles onto a hidden well in Anguilla with water that stops aging. Along the way, and as part of discovering the well, he found evidence that Vikings had discovered the island hundreds of years ago and they too had found the well. So, I had combined all these things that I had found while traveling.
In another example, while I was once in New York City, I read a non-fiction book about Tesla and another about the mole people living in tunnels underneath the city, which inspired me to write my second book, Black Box. I asked how this could be turned into a story. I imagined a story featuring a seventeen-year-old runaway living with a homeless group below the city. He stumbles upon a Tesla invention that was buried after his lab burned down in the 1890s.
Self Made Inspiration
Don’t underestimate the inspiration that can come from the mundane.
Being inspired is important and motivating. But being inspired doesn’t require being moved by something. Sitting around and waiting for inspiration won’t work, but nothing will stop you from venturing out to discover it. You have the power to inspire yourself in ways you may not expect. By asking simple questions, you can develop an idea, even when you don’t have one to start with. “What” is the word you should always ask yourself. What if? What would it be like? What happens next? It goes on and on, building momentum, and before you know it, you’ve inspired yourself all the way to an ending. It’s a process and a cycle, so stay open and don’t get discouraged if you face a hurdle. If you encounter a roadblock, go for a walk and ask yourself a plethora of questions. A long walk in nature is an even better option. Let your imagination run wild. Visualize the story, recite it to yourself, and don’t concern yourself with the outcome for the time being. You can resolve that later. Start with something, anything that you can sink your teeth into. This is one way how to inspire yourself.
Goals and Time
Goals are important, but not all goals are equal. In addition to my exercise regimen, I’ll dedicate studio time to writing and recording my work. I set goals that I know I can attain and give myself permission to adjust them as necessary. A single long-term goal is what motivates me the most. I wrote my debut novel because I wanted to challenge myself and see if I could write a book. My goal took around 18 months to achieve while juggling full-time work, touring and creating records. That was my only goal. And I didn’t care if it would ever see the light of day. My goal was achievable from the onset. No one else was needed for me to complete it, and that was important because when you rely on others, your goal has to be their goal too. After finishing my first book, I questioned myself if I could write another. And after that I asked myself if I was able to do a large body of work. In fact, I had to figure out how to write such a large story. My usual way wouldn’t work. So my first goal after figuring out the story from beginning to end was figuring out a process that would allow me to achieve my very large goal. And I now have all the world and story for an eight-book series, with one book completed with the second one currently in progress. But it was the simple goals of wanting to complete one book, then another, then a series that worked for me. And time spent was flexible, but the desire to complete the goals always brought me back on track, even if life made me take a break once in while.
Primary Goals I Use
I always avoid monetary success as a goal. I keep my primary focus on the goal of creating, and if that leads to financial success, great.
I try to keep daily goals adjustable, and strive more to accomplish weekly objectives. But use long term goals as the most important overall. Everything is flexible because you are the boss. It needs to be that way, or you’ll crash and burn trying to hit goals that aren’t doable. Goals shouldn’t become barriers to creativity.
I prefer to make my primary goals bucket list goals. Of course, this is targeted at things like novels and not my general everyday work for hire. Bucket list goals have more overall importance to me and longer timeframes. By giving myself that extra time, I can reduce the pressure, knowing I can eventually achieve my goal. But at the same time, I really want to complete the goal, so I’ll keep at it.
I find that establishing pre-goals can be useful in achieving your ultimate goals. Before you embark on writing a book, for example, give yourself the pre-goal of having a beginning, middle, and end to your story figured out. It doesn’t have to be every beat, scene or piece of dialog. Just know where the story is going and why. Or in the case of writing a song, establish a chorus melody to your song before embarking on the rest. Every idea has to start with some framework. The idea is to have enough to construct the rest of the creation and meet your goals. First crawl, then walk, and ultimately run.
Books and Sources
Several months ago, I read my first and only book on creativity. Rick Rubin’s book, The Creative Act, is fantastic and genuine. As a musical recording artist, I recognized Rick Rubin, which drew me to it. I was intrigued by his reputation as a Zen-like creative guru and one of the world’s top record producers. As it’s the sole book I’ve read on creativity, there’s no other book I can compare it with. But based on my voyage as a creative, Rick’s book is precisely what I’ve encountered in my experience, and his book is overflowing with delightful, optimistic, and helpful information about being creative. As I went through his book, I felt like I was looking into a mirror of understanding, and I couldn’t help but smile and nod. For anyone pursuing a creative path, I highly recommend reading the book, which is also available on Audible as an audiobook.
Because of my musical background, I find it enjoyable to write novels while listening to music, which might be an unconventional suggestion. I’ve been a professional film composer for a long time, so I’m inclined to listening to score music. And it’s second nature to story telling. When I hike and brainstorm a story, or when I’m about to write, I listen to atmospheric music such as score or ambient music to help establish the atmosphere. To me, music helps in telling a story. It’s possible it won’t work for you, but I recommend giving it a try. You never know. Streaming music services such as Spotify or Apple Music offer a wide variety of soundtracks.
About the Author
Erik Godal is a professional creative who’s work has spanned decades as a major label, recording artist, studio musician, record producer, film composer, film producer, novelist, and scriptwriter. He has composed music for various films and TV shows, including SpongeBob SquarePants and National Geographic nature documentaries, as well as indie films. He has also produced films for National Geographic in collaboration with his sister. In music he has recorded and toured with various major label bands, and is a member of the bands Novacaine, Blind Fish, and The Blue Hawaiians. Furthermore, he has multiple film scripts and two original TV series currently in development and pre-production and has written three novels to date. His residence in Los Angeles is shared with his three kids, two dogs, and a couple of ravens.
Stay tuned for a review of The Creative Act by Rick Rubin (Goodreads)! I mentioned it in the July wrap up as the book I read twice. Erik’s sentiments from above summarize my experience of it really well.
based on my voyage as a creative, Rick’s book is precisely what I’ve encountered in my experience, and his book is overflowing with delightful, optimistic, and helpful information about being creative. As I went through his book, I felt like I was looking into a mirror of understanding, and I couldn’t help but smile and nod. “
Thank you friend for reading to the end of the post. I hope you enjoyed this conversation. Connect with Erik on Facebook, Instagram and his website.
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