Patricia Serrano: On Creativity
Marianna
Do you have a routine for entering into a creative headspace?
Patricia
Yes! I meditate daily and yoga when I am able as well. Singing bowls sessions are also good if at all possible! Sometimes I sing and just be silly. Gotta release to get those creative juices going!
Marianna
Do you have habits you've built for yourself to foster creativity?
Patricia
I love to go on walks. Seeing different landscapes really inspires me. Usually, I’m in a city and people watching also stimulates me. I love eavesdropping on people’s conversations like a fly on the wall. I am fascinated by and love to examine how people communicate - both with words and non-verbally. Listening makes me a better writer. I also like examining the relationships between animals and sometimes daydream dialogue for them.
Right now I’m in Princeton, New Jersey and I’ve seen beautiful birds, groundhogs, deer, and even fox here. I always wonder what they must be thinking and I make up loads of stuff in my mind. These things can be considered a distraction but I find them inspiring. I’ll keep being distracted sometimes until I find something that triggers my creativity. I’m also inspired by my friends and the art they create as well.
Marianna
Where do you think ideas come from?
Patricia
I’m not sure exactly where they come from but I feel like when you have a good idea, it’s downloaded from the heavens and work is being created through you. It’s a really humbling and beautiful feeling of letting go.
Marianna
What does creativity mean to you?
Patricia
Creativity is daily play. Its everything to me. It needs to be cultivated and nourished, respected, and tended to like a plant. You need to feed your creative soul with play.
Marianna
When do your best ideas hit you?
Patricia
I tend to get ideas when I least expect it or when I have loads of coffee. And then I like refining it with other people by talking to them like a sounding board. If there aren’t people around, the text the idea and notes around that to myself to look at later.
Marianna
How would you describe your creative process?
Patricia
A big old beautiful mess! Kind of an emotional roller coaster but when I get incredibly focused (usually with a lot of coffee), then I can get things down coherently! I think I need the structure in order to get organized and pull the ideas out of the air. It starts super messy but then gets refined and channeled down.
Marianna
So many artists are pivoting and finding ways to adjust their creative process during the quarantine. How have you been channeling your creativity during this time? Discover anything new or surprising about yourself?
Patricia
I am surprised that after traveling for so long, I am loving structure and not traveling for a while so I have my mind free of making travel plans to wholly immerse myself in creating. I’m so used to being in a “what’s next” mode all the time that I forgot how nice it is to just lie in bed and think about things that don’t involve getting on a flight.
In mid-March, I joined an 8-week writing workshop to jump-start rewriting old scripts which is something that I’ve wanted to do for a while and I didn’t anticipate that COVID would be so bad. When it started to get bad, I found myself unable to write as some people in my writing workshop even dropped out mid-way because they had loved ones affected by COVID and it really broke my heart to see so many people hurting.
It’s hard to work on a screenplay like that! I then started singing daily to ease my discomfort with everything that was going on. My mom is Filipino and I grew up listening to her sing karaoke a lot so singing really nourishes me and makes me feel safe. I think feel safe is very important in doing your art - safe to express, safe to show your vulnerability, safe to make mistakes, safe to be yourself.
Marianna
What unexpected turns did your life take to lead you to become who you are today?
Patricia
After I finished grad school, I went to LA to work with a film producer and I ended up hating it and it was something that I thought I was supposed to do, I knew in my heart that I wanted to do something else so I quit my job and started working on my travel blog FreshTraveler. I didn’t expect that my work on my blog would take me on so many adventures in so many places around the world.
The biggest adventure was testing my mettle and what I was made of. I think it was not being afraid to test out new things that made me who I am today. I made mistakes mind you but I wouldn’t trade any of them for the world as it’s taught me who I am and I can learn from that. I also learned how resilient I was when I focused on doing the things I love.
Marianna
What sources of inspiration do you use to foster creativity in your work?
Patricia
I love listening to music from different parts of the world. Music that is inspiring and feeds into the mood of what I want to create - whether that is cooking or writing or acting, I’ll have a theme song. Looking at a lot of really simulating visuals also really fosters my creativity - whether it’s going to an art exhibit or even window or online window shopping for really beautiful dresses and bags or watching a film.
I’m usually conscious of what I’m intaking because I know it will influence my work. I try to stay away from really upsetting news reports before I sit and create something.
Marianna
What creative accomplishments are you most proud of?
Patricia
I am very proud of my work with my travel blog Freshtraveler. I had no idea what would happen with it when I quit my job working with a film producer in LA to working on my blog back in 2010 but the places that it’s taken me has been truly amazing. I’ve been able to build a beautiful travel company based on my love for exploring new places and sustainable travel.
I’ve also written and produced a short web series - Sexual Misadventures of Tyson the Male Poodle, which was really fun. Unfortunately, we didn’t get more funding to do past the first three episodes but it was a super fun experience nonetheless.
As for creative works I produced over the quarantine that I’m proud of: In my writing workshop, I finished writing a new screenplay and I’m also now working on a musical with my singer/songwriter cousin.
Marianna
What do you think is something that most creative people in the world have in common?
Patricia
I think creative people all over the world have the need to create by whatever means they can - whether through cooking, baking, painting, singing, dancing, acting, writing - it’s an innate need to connect with your inner self and manifest it to the outer world. This is why I think it’s very important for creative people to take care of their inner self.
Marianna
How do you make sense of chaos in your life?
Patricia
I think chaos is just change. It’s part of life and it’s an opportunity to transform. Sometimes people don’t make decisions because they are afraid of change, afraid of the chaos that comes with change. I think if you want to keep growing artistically and spiritually, you need to embrace the chaos that comes with change.
Marianna
Why do you think people get stuck on problems?
Patricia
Albert Einstein said, "No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” This was something that my current acting coach Joseph Pearlman reminded me of and it was the reason why I joined his classes.
If you’re facing an issue, I believe in taking the time to get yourself out of the headspace that created it will lead to solutions! My acting coach also told me that we do our best work when we are lit up with fun and we need to get rid of our mind-viruses and also we need to stop our stories of suffering. We can’t play the victim in our lives, we need to be an active protagonist.
Marianna
What advice would you offer those struggling with creative blocks?
Patricia
When I had writer’s block originally during the writing workshop I did, I started singing daily to ease my discomfort with everything that was going on. As I mentioned earlier, my mom is Filipino and I grew up listening to her sing karaoke a lot so singing really nourishes me and makes me feel safe. I think feeling safe is very important in doing your art - safe to express, safe to show your vulnerability, safe to make mistakes, safe to be yourself. I think if you are working on something and find yourself stuck, don’t be afraid to listen to your body and yourself to see what you feel like doing right now.
Forcing yourself to work on something when you aren’t feeling it isn’t the best tactic - you need to indulge in self-care, listen to your body, surround yourself with nourishing people and I feel like when you are ready, your creativity will just flow! I then joined an acting class and this actually helped with my writing! So my advice would be to find different creative avenues to feed your creative soul. Whatever it is, singing, cooking, painting, dancing, taking a nice bath, jogging… these are all soul nourishing!
About Patricia Serrano:
Patricia Serrano is a travel host and actor, writer, and producer with a passion for one-of-kind life experiences and off-the-beaten-path adventures. She has been featured on The Travel Channel.
Hailing from Bangkok, Thailand, she was educated at Emerson College in Boston, MA (BA in TV Production), and successfully survived a two-year MFA program for Dramatic Writing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Other than working on FreshTraveler, she writes narrative films and produced a web series she wrote on Petsami.com’s YouTube channel called The Sexual MisAdventures of Tyson the Male Poodle.
Her short film, Slight Insecurities Regarding Vermin, directed by Chris Joslin, was selected to be featured at the 2010 Connecticut Film Festival.
In addition to screenwriting, she’s a story consultant, freelance writer, and has worked in TV and radio. She’s also worked with Warner Brothers in Los Angeles producing and starring in web content.
Follow Patricia and her adventures on her website on Instagram and on Facebook.