The Art of the Concept: Boom Shakalaka

Most of the time, I sit at my desk with my headphones in. This is pretty standard with creatives these days. Maybe it comes from school, where we all had to wear them to actually get any work done. Sometimes it’s about listening to the music, sometimes it’s just about not being bothered. If you’re working, and you’re in the zone, and somebody picks that time to decide you’re not doing anything and come up and ask you a question, or talk to you about the news, or the weather, or just wanted to tell you that there was an email they got and it had to do with the russian mafia and there’s a five minute backstory before they actually tell you what the email said and all you can think is dear god this is the longest joke in the history of the world and there’s no possible way the punchline will EVER live up to the anticipation… well, it can totally ruin your concept.

The only other group I can think of that is as dedicated to their ipods is distance runners. Five miles, ten miles, fifteen miles, thirty miles, the music becomes the driving force. They time their feet to the beat, one after another. An uptempo song, they increase their time by thirty seconds, and then they puke from over training. As a writer, and a barefoot runner, I do the same. When the music’s jamming, I pound the keys. When it’s slow, I get deep in my head, take my time, slowly.

But no matter what, when there’s music going, I’m working. I’m moving. My brain starts moving. Ideas start coming. The world takes a back seat to what’s in my head. Time slows down, concrete walls build around me, the lights dim, and my eyes focus on the words on the screen. They move from left to right, up to down, one line after another. Where the word count turns from 50 to 329 and counting. All of a sudden, I’m writing. I’m creating.

I’m concepting.

I can’t promise it’s good, but at that point, I don’t care. All I care about is that I’ve filled the page, finished the work, and can come back to it later with fresh eyes, a fresh mind, and another tune.

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