The Forces of Creativity: Balance
by Karen L. Oberst


"Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is, and not as it should be."--Cervantes (Don Quixote)

This is one of a series of articles about creativity. They follow the "forces of creativity" as outlined by Don Hahn in his book Dancing Corndogs in the Night: Reawakening Your Creative Spirit, though they are here applied particularly to creativity in writing. These forces are Craft, Light, Chaos, Balance, Curiosity, Composition, Simplicity, Spectacle, Surprise, Memory, Symbol and Truth.

At first thought, balance may seem strange as a force of creativity. As you look deeper, however, it becomes clear that this is a very powerful concept. This article will look at balance as used in organizations and other areas, as it affects day-to-day life, as poets see it, and as it relates to other writing.

Balance in Organizations/Associations
The balance of nature is a common phrase. And indeed, nature has a way of balancing out the happenings of life, unless something shifts the balance too far, such as man's intrusion into the cycle. It is to be expected therefore, that balance should be an integral part of the ecological movement, particularly where ecology impacts other parts of life.

Water rights are a good example. If water is deemed necessary for a certain fish to live, what happens to the farmer who also needs the water for irrigation? How do you balance the needs of creatures like the spotted owl with the needs of lumber companies to harvest trees and make a living? Too often these become either/or questions rather than seeking for a creative balance of opposing needs.

Business constantly faces balancing acts as well. When you need to make a profit, do you work hard to sell more or cut expenses (meaning employees)? Do you cut the quality of your product, or charge more for it? Do you put money into training or equipment? Do you focus on customers or making profit for your shareholders? Hopefully, most businesses try to find that balance that meets all needs.

Balance in Life
Again, finding balance a constant challenge. How do you balance a career and home life? How do you balance the needs of a family and the need to write? Do you buy a new house or remodel the old one? Do you go on vacation or put the money into a retirement account? How do you balance the need for security and the need to take risks and meet challenges? Each person must creatively find the balance point for himself or herself.

Balance in Poetry
In Hamlet, Shakespeare has created a title character who can never seem to find any kind of balance. Hamlet can't decide when to act, or how to act, and in the end this indecision costs his life. His problem is summed up in this familiar speech:

To be or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing, end them.

As you see, for him, there is no balance, only the two opposing ideas.

Another poet who warns against the dangers of losing balance is William Butler Yeats. Here are a few lines from his amazing poem "The Second Coming." Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Sounds a little like our world right now, doesn't it? When balance is lost, anarchy is all too likely to take over.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti in his poem "Constantly Risking Absurdity" compares a poet to an acrobat, challenged to find balance, to somehow be able to get across his vision to his readers, to give them something real and beautiful. Constantly risking absurdity
And death
Whenever he performs
Above the heads
Of his audience
The poet like an acrobat
Climbs on rime
To a high wire of his own making
And balancing on eyebeams
Above a sea of faces
Paces his way
To the other side of the day...

Balance in Life
Besides the obvious need to balance writing time and the rest of life, authors face the issue of balance in writing.

How do you judge the balance between researching or thinking or preparation time with the actual writing? How do you balance the time spent on the first draft with the time polishing the manuscript?

Show, don't tell is something you hear constantly, but actually, meaningful writing is a balance between the two. You need to balance good and evil in your story and your characters, action scenes and peaceful scenes. How do you balance short and long sentences or short and long paragraphs or even short and long chapters? What about familiar and unfamiliar words or concepts? How do you balance the time each character gets in the story? Or if writing an article, how do you decide how much emphasis to put on each point? How do you balance facts with feeling, or facts and advice? How do you balance varying viewpoints?

It is in finding these balances that creative writers are separated from hacks, good writers are told from bad writers, and professionals from amateurs. Think about how weighting different sides of things can change your story. Try rewriting with the balance on different facets.

Here's an example. You have a scene where your two characters have a fight. Call them John and Mary. After arguing, John storms out of the room. Write the scene from John's side, showing all the reasons he is right. Then write it from Mary's side. Now balance them in the best way to move your scene and your story forward. Write the scene as all description, and then as all dialogue. Take the best of both to make the strongest scene. There are all sorts of other balances you can look at, such as short and long sentences--the balance of rhythm for an argument will be different than when John and Mary have made up and are watching the sunset--the physical reactions of each, etc.

Balance is a powerful force in creativity. As Archimedes said so long ago: "Give me a lever long enough, and a fulcrum strong enough, and single-handed I can move the world." The fulcrum is the balance for the lever, and knowing (or discovering) where that balance point is, is the difference between looking foolish, and moving your readers.

May you find your balance as a writer and a person.


Copyright © 2001 by Karen L. Oberst

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