Over the next year and a half or so, my team and I will be rolling out a series of workshops that think about how creative work and critical work can be brought together. These workshops will focus on hands-on activity, where we will briefly talk attendees through the theory side before all jumping into the creativity pool together. I’m very excited about it! We also plan to share some of our workshops and exercises online, likely on our blogs and possibly on Youtube - I will keep you updated as that happens.
In the lead-up to this, I’ve been thinking a lot about why it is that I love playing with adaptation so much. Why it scratches my creative itch so completely. I suspect part of the draw of dabbling in literary adaptation for me is the way it neatly brings together so many of my loves and interests:
literature, of course
use of constraints in creative work
formulas, archetypes, and structures
storytelling as a means of connection and communication
Interestingly, literary adaptation also provides a means to address a number of my own creative anxieties at the same time:
fear of the blank page
anxiety about “no new ideas”
paralysis in the face of limitless possibilities in the early stages of a new work
a propensity towards overthinking
When I start to play with a new literary text, I already know the story, so the page no longer feels blank. Adaptation tricks my brain into bypassing the paralysis and fears and instead switches it to puzzle-solving mode: I start looking for a way in, digging for what (or who) is missing, doubling back to think about what I understand of the story and if my understanding is correct. I look at the structures of the story and imagine what might happen if I rearranged it; if I left something out, if I added something in; wondering at what point the story might ‘collapse’? Even if it does, is that a bad thing? What has the collapse taught me about how the story is built? Before I know it, my mind is turning up all kinds of exciting ideas and the text feels limitless in a way that’s inviting and not terrifying.
In addition to the academic side, I’m also considering how I can best share these ideas and possibilities (and the techniques to get started) with other cartoonists. I get the sense there’s growing interest in well-made graphic novel literary adaptations right now and I (selfishly) would love to see more of them! I’m hoping in the coming months to start sharing a few exercises and prompts here before I post them someplace more public. If you would be interested in giving them a try, please let me know!
I will leave you with one of my adaptation experiments that brings together ideas about creativity and artistic theft as well as Mr. Ed and Chaucer: what does Harry Bailey’s horse think about the Canterbury pilgrimage? (The question you never knew you needed answered…)