Start Here
photo by catherine campbell
Start Here
second year alexis kelley
The brainstorming process always seems to start in the back of a room full of booths. It could be dark, with the red lights that line the walls moving your eyes to the front of the room. Or you could start in the front, with the sun shining through the big window and see how far the light goes until the shadow starts. Either way, you’re in the back now, looking towards the front.
And you pull up a blank document. The black cursor starts blinking start here start here start here. What to say, what to say. Maybe go ahead and pull up a thesaurus website too, just in case. Still a blank page. The only way to start is to look away, or I guess look up and around. Continuing to live in the space in your head, you lay your eyes on everything in the room. These are the moments where you pretend no one can notice you noticing. This is when the world becomes a word bank full of inspiration.
It could be about anything. You play around again with the idea of light and dark. There’s a story there. The foggy and misty light from outside is enough to light up so much of the room. A metaphor for life? Do people, no matter how foggy themselves, have the power to light up the space you’re living in? Will there always be dark corners? Or will you discover that you can be your own light simply by noticing the bulbs that are already there?
No. Done before.
Ok, something about the man at the front of the store. Or the people in the booths. They’re hard to see from where you’re sitting. They all seem to be on their own. It could be a metanarrative about the way people come and go and the whole world shifts around them. They may be sitting in this booth now, but maybe later they’re going to their best friend’s wedding shower, or their kid’s sporting event, or just going home to do some laundry. Their coming and going can be a symbol for the coming and going of life’s events and how just sitting in a booth at a restaurant alone can be a moment to breathe and savor the moments of today.
No. Too introspective.
Maybe it can be about perspective. Why do our eyes follow the line of booths to the front of the room? Is the aisle just a place to walk, or does it secretly add a sense of symmetry that we all need? The relationship between lines and half circles, square tiles and rectangular bars, circle cups, plates, L shaped seats and T shaped tables. All of these shapes bring reality to our world.
No. Definitely not, what a strange thought.
Ok, this is too serious. What about the way you party with friends? A mostly empty restaurant can turn into a lively event with just a few elements. The game’s already on. The tables are set, the kitchen is full, the mood is right. Just bring in a group of rowdy friends and the right queue and this scene suddenly turns into a montage of drinking and laughing. The stillness is replaced with movement and excitement with just a few people.
That could be fun, but too Netflix original romcom?
Maybe you should write about your thinking process. It could be about all the ideas you just had at the back of this restaurant and could encourage people to pause and think creatively. There’s too many ideas, too many possibilities for a creative mind to pull from one scene. The world is too full of motion for one idea to be the perfect one. It takes settling on one and fleshing it out until it’s something beautiful and connecting.