How to Get Creatively Unstuck: A Lesson from Novelist Jonathan Safran Foer

source: Big Think    2016年9月2日
Author Jonathan Safran Foer on the two surprising qualities successful writers need. Foer's latest book is "Here I Am" (http://goo.gl/t3j64W).
Read more at BigThink.com: http://bigthink.com/videos/jonathan-s...

Transcript - I think very often when people refer to being stuck, or this is certainly my own experience and I've talked about it enough with friends, some of whom are writers, some of whom are other kinds of artists, some of them do other things with your life, often times when people refer to being stuck they don't mean like creatively blocked, they don't mean that they don't have any good ideas, they mean that they don't have any ideas that they care about; that nothing they're making feels important to them. When you don't care about something you just don't do a good job with it. Maybe you can for a while. It's possible to fake it for a bit or it's possible to have incentives to do things like I have a deadline or my boss is going to be looking over my shoulder if I don't, but for most of us we do our best work when we care about it.
So when I teach if a student will say something to me like I really love this but I know it's not going to be a good book or I actually have a friend who also teaches who was telling me about an experience he had were a student came up to him and said, "I wrote all these notes for this book I want to write but I find that I never write the book, I just really love working on the notes for the book." And my friend's advice was, "Well, probably the notes are your book. If that's what you love and that's what you're drawn to and you're imagination wants to go there then just let it go there. The worst that can happen is it's a book that will be for nobody but you, but that is actually a much better fate than writing a book that lots of people like that isn't for you." So when something draws my attention, when something feels important or even just pleasurable to me, I work on it even if it's off the track, even if I'm already 60 percent of the way into what I thought was the book I was going to write if I suddenly find that one of the little voices in it is appealing to me more than it ought to, this person I thought was a side character suddenly like elbowing into the middle of the room and just wants to stay there and wants to be the center of attention, I will make that character the center of attention despite it being a very efficient way to work because I know that I have become unsuccessful, I've become stuck, I've become unhappy when I'm working on something that I know isn't really what I care about. Read Full Transcript Here: http://goo.gl/bnlojk.

The American Novel Since 1945 with Amy Hungerford at Yale University (Spring 2008)

# automatic playing for the 24 videos (click the up-left corner for the list)

source: YaleCourses   Last updated on 2014年7月1日
The American Novel Since 1945 (ENGL 291)
In "The American Novel Since 1945" students will study a wide range of works from 1945 to the present. The course traces the formal and thematic developments of the novel in this period, focusing on the relationship between writers and readers, the conditions of publishing, innovations in the novel's form, fiction's engagement with history, and the changing place of literature in American culture. The reading list includes works by Richard Wright, Flannery O'Connor, Vladimir Nabokov, Jack Kerouac, J. D. Salinger, Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, Maxine Hong Kingston, Toni Morrison, Marilynne Robinson, Cormac McCarthy, Philip Roth and Edward P. Jones. The course concludes with a contemporary novel chosen by the students in the class.
Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

1. Introductions 47:36
2. Richard Wright, Black Boy 50:30
3. Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood 47:07
4. Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood (cont.) 44:46
5. Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita 51:31
6. Guest Lecture by Andrew Goldstone 43:26
7. Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (cont.) 46:43
8. Jack Kerouac, On the Road 47:47
9. Jack Kerouac, On the Road (cont.) 45:52
10. J. D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey 47:30
11. John Barth, Lost in the Funhouse 49:11
12. Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 49:28
13. Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye 50:01
14. Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior 50:56
15. Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping 46:52
16. Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping (cont.) 49:29
17. Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian 50:13
18. Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (cont.) 40:20
19. Philip Roth, The Human Stain 48:52
20. Philip Roth, The Human Stain (cont.) 49:36
21. Philip Roth, The Human Stain (cont.) 45:59
22. Edward P. Jones, The Known World 50:58
23. Edward P. Jones, The Known World (cont.) 46:44
24. Students' Choice Novel: Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated 45:48
25. Students' Choice Novel: Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated (cont.) 48:56
26. Review for Final Exam 55:18

another source: http://oyc.yale.edu/english/engl-291#sessions (Yale University)

# Click "cc" on the up right corner of each video for English subtitles.

Lecture 1 Introductions
Lecture 2 Richard Wright, Black Boy
Lecture 3 Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood
Lecture 4 Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood (cont.)
Lecture 5 Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
Lecture 6 Guest Lecture by Andrew Goldstone
Lecture 7 Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (cont.)
Lecture 8 Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Lecture 9 Jack Kerouac, On the Road (cont.)
Lecture 10 J. D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey
Lecture 11 John Barth, Lost in the Funhouse
Lecture 12 Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
Lecture 13 Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye
Lecture 14 Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior
Lecture 15 Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping
Lecture 16 Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping (cont.)
Lecture 17 Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
Lecture 18 Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (cont.)
Lecture 19 Philip Roth, The Human Stain
Lecture 20 Philip Roth, The Human Stain (cont.)
Lecture 21 Philip Roth, The Human Stain (cont.)
Lecture 22 Edward P. Jones, The Known World
Lecture 23 Edward P. Jones, The Known World (cont.)
Lecture 24 Students' Choice Novel: Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated
Lecture 25 Students' Choice Novel: Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated (cont.)
Lecture 26 Review for Final Exam
Exam 1 Final Exam