A Smiling Wall and Infinite Creativity

One of my favourite highs of writing is the infinite possibilities of the blank page. 

Whether it's a short story, novel, play or whatever, you can travel anywhere and do anything. 

You might have seen some scientific analyses that say there are only four, or seven, or whatever basic types of plot, character etc etc. 

I always think that's nonsense. No amount of science can define human creativity. It's part of the joy of the arts and just not possible. 

Why am I talking about this now? Because this week I saw a photo which made me (1) smile and (2) think it was a good way of disproving any attempted scientific study of writing. 

wall.JPG

Allow me to introduce Dartmoor farmer Lloyd Mortimore and his smiley wall (isn't it great?)

And my analogy is this - 

We need a wall and we've got a pile of bricks. We can either stick them together in the standard, boring, bog ordinary way... the scientific version of writing a story... 

Or we can stop for a few minutes, think a little, and realise something far more original and satisfying is possible. 

Bless creativity, its infinite possibilities, and a smiling wall.