One of the great joys of writing fiction is the opportunity it creates to embrace that untamed part of yourself and be daring. Creative writing involves pushing boundaries, taking creative risks, discovering things about yourself and going on an adventure—one where you don’t always know exactly where you’ll end up.
Too often, writers play it safe. They try to over-control the process, find themselves second-guessing themselves at every turn and stifle their creativity. Playing it safe in a first draft leads to predictable stories—ones that don’t truly move, entertain and inspire readers.
When you allow yourself to play, to write freely without the pressure of perfection, you tap into something deeper, bigger than your conscious mind. Characters come alive on the page.
This is the spirit we encourage in our 4-Week Unlocking Creativity Course and our 10-Month Novel & Script First Draft Course. This approach frees writers from hesitation and self-doubt, helping them dive into their stories with courage, curiosity, and a sense of play.
The American novelist, Eudora Welty said, “If you can’t be a genius, imitate the daring.”
Gore Verbinski, who directed the Pirates of the Caribbean series and the animated Western, Rango, gives some intriguing insights into his creative process in an interview.
He turned down the opportunity to make a fourth Pirates movie to make Rango, a Western featuring a lizard as a lead character. That is after the first three Pirates movies had grossed more than $1.9 billion at the box office alone.
An interviewer asked, why take such a risk?
”I chose not to do a fourth Pirates film because it’s just not gonna scare me any more and that is a dangerous place to be,” he says. ”I like being in that place where you wake up in a cold sweat at three in the morning, you’re shivering and you’re not sure if you’ve got hold of the problems.”
Writing is an act of discovery. Creating a first draft of anything is a time to write boldly, take chances and allow the unexpected to unfold on the page. It’s about embracing the unknown, trusting the process, answering the call to adventure and seeing where the story wants to take you. Creative people rarely succeed by playing it safe. They have learnt to embrace the uncertain.
Something many aspiring writers find very challenging.
None of Verbinski’s team had worked in animation.
”It’s nice to not know what you’re doing, to not be sure,” he says. ‘‘It’s a really great place to be.”
”When we made the first Pirates film, I was in that position. The production is going through your mind and everybody’s on their toes.”
”My personal belief is that you have to go some place new, you have to step into the unknown a little bit.”
And the gamble paid off – Rango took $38 million on its opening weekend at the US box office – vindicating Verbinski’s creative left turn.
A fun moment from one of our Live classes in Bronte: our fearless leader, Roland, was deep in a creative session when his papers went flying. Without missing a beat, he jumped up from the floor like a surfer catching a wave—proof that creativity (and quick reflexes) come in many forms!
Daring creates the X-factor in creativity. So be bold. Be playful. Be daring. Push the boundaries and make discoveries. You can always pull back, think it through and shape it later—but first, you have to dare to write it.
As the great crime writer, Elmore Leonard, said, he only started getting anywhere when he started having fun.
