As a professional writer and blogging consultant, Hugo Sebastian Hirsch is more than familiar with the process involved in any creative endeavor. Hirsch has said that there is a benefit to engaging in diverse creative pursuits, as he believes that a writer can gain quite bit from studying the process involved in preparing for an acting role, just as an actor can benefit from regular writing practice. While it is not necessary for a writer to become fully invested in acting or to pursue acting as a second career, it is important that there is a commitment to understanding the process that is involved in perfecting any art form.
“As a general rule, I try to step away from writing a few times per year just to recharge and refresh,” says Hirsch. “During those periods in which I am not writing, I have found it to be tremendously beneficial to engage in some other pursuit that allows me to express myself creatively in a manner that is different from what I am used to. I have tried painting, sculpting, acting and, most recently, architectural design. I have found that when I return to writing, I am not only refreshed, but I also feel as though I have a new perspective and can approach my craft in a different way than before.”
Hirsch declined to say whether he found himself more suited to one pursuit or another, as his goal was to simply express himself creatively through a new and unique medium. A notoriously process-oriented individual, Hirsch has emphasized that understanding how an art form comes to be is more important to him than the actual final outcome. After acting, Hirsch felt better equipped for writing dialogue, as so much time was spent on ensuring the proper emotion was conveyed through subtle expressions, actions, movements and tones.
“It reminded me that how the dialogue is spoken is just as important as the words that are actually spoken aloud,” recalled Hirsch, who advises all creative types to explore new mediums whenever they have the opporunity. “When I returned to my creative writing, I experimented with all kinds of subtleties in conversations between characters, and I found that the dialogue was most realistic when what was said was in stark contrast to the speaker’s body language, tone and facial expressions, as most people are afraid to be direct in conversation and try to convey what they are really thinking through non-verbal cues.”