If you don’t find the creative process interesting, don’t read this blog.
Twenty years ago I was diligently writing research notes on a yellow pad, developing my show Recycled Starlet, which spanned decades of Hollywood history. In reading the notes over, concepts and facts that didn’t necessarily need to relate to one another started to become sequentially linked in my mind. This bugged me, so I got some post-its and began transferring the notes onto them. Then I stuck the post-its onto pieces of 8x11 paper, organizing them by subject or theme. I could move the post-its around, making all sorts of connections. It was fun, and yes, dammit, color-coding was involved! One of the things I dislike most about writing is the black-on-white color scheme.
So for this still unnamed project, which I was calling “The Project,” I began to make notes on post-its practically from the start. I didn’t know enough yet about the actual content to color code, so I ended up with zillions of multi-colored post-its. Eventually I sorted them by historical or socio-political topic and stuck them to 10x14 drawing paper. And those papers got labels with white post-its.
Once I had a rough outline for the whole poem cycle, I made color-coded post-its for important concepts or themes, and those are the ones up on the wall in the video below. Some spilled over into the hall: literary quotes and lyrics are on pale blue, Christianity on peach-colored.
Each time I started a new section or poem I’d review all the 10x14 pages of historical and socio-political topics and take out all applicable post-its. Then I’d walk around and read the post-its on the walls. I’d pluck the useful ones like ripe fruit, then stick them along with the historical and current socio-political post-its over the framed pictures (that’d been on my walls before the post-its took over.) Finally, I’d prop these colorful writing guides up near my desk to refer to them as I worked, either directly or for inspiration, as seen in the top photo.
Uh, yes, research is always a wormhole for me. I like backstory! But when I found myself reading about The Crusades to prepare to write about American history, I knew I was pushing it. Yet even that detour paid off, because I realized how little I knew about Christianity or the Bible. (I’d tried a few times to read the Good Book and quit.) So I bought 2 Bible guides—one skewed liberal, the other more traditional— and boned up. I’m not exaggerating when I say that after I’d done that, everything that hadn’t quite been making sense became clear: all 400 years of American history. I was ready to outline the entire cycle and start scribbling some verse.
Early on in the research, about 2 years ago, I came across a description of fascism. There was a list of characteristics which fascist regimes shared, and a list of the three “must haves.”
1) Mythic past—such “Make America Great Again.” CHECK. ✅
2) Pit groups against one another. CHECK. ✅
3) Attack truth. CHECK. ✅
Milo