Why I write, rather than draw
Sep. 7th, 2005 08:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsI saw a piece of art in a restaurant the other day that reminded me of why I am a writer and not an artist. The artist had created a bit of naive, folksy art, a clock in a glass box surrounded by an abstract miniature of a pier: bits of wood shaped and colored into planking, hand-carved seagulls and a small painted life-ring, all wrapped in twine in ways that suggested the ropes and lines of sailing vessels. The background was the appropriate blue and white.
If I had tried to make something like that, I would never have finished it. I wouldn't have seen the picture that I had made. I would have seen all the bits: the pieces of wood that I bought from a hobby store for a few pennies, the line of twine from a five&dime. I would focus upon the mistakes: the visible nicks, the places where the wrapped twine wasn't even. I would have angsted over the choice of font for the face of the clock.
When I write, I'm reminded of a quote by the rock star Sting: "I never finish a song. Eventually, I abandon it." I feel much the same way about my writing. I never finish a story. I write a story and decide if it has at least a complete plot with a denouement of some kind, and then I twiddle with it. Over and over again. Eventually, I abandon it. If it's complete, I let it sit for a while, then revisit it one last time six months later to try and catch every typo, and then I post it.
Sometimes I post it too soon. I found three typos in the Separate stories (Separate Electricities, Separate Responsibilities, and Separate, Together) and I'll upload the bugfixes later today.
When I draw, I don't see the face, or the room I'm drawing, or the building facade (when I'm outside I especially like to draw building facade's, as they're usually easy and have fascinating plays of light and texture). I see the lines. I see the mistakes. I see the places where I've marred the picture and debate giving up. I rarely finish a drawing.
I'm looking at my complete Journal Entries collection, all 346 episodes, a ridiculous number of which are labeled "incomplete," and I know that someday I might actually finish those. The only reason I'll finish those is because the delete button on a computer is absolute, and I can always start over. I know I can produce a thousand words faster than I can draw a picture. Whether other people will get it quite so acutely is still something I can't answer.
If I had tried to make something like that, I would never have finished it. I wouldn't have seen the picture that I had made. I would have seen all the bits: the pieces of wood that I bought from a hobby store for a few pennies, the line of twine from a five&dime. I would focus upon the mistakes: the visible nicks, the places where the wrapped twine wasn't even. I would have angsted over the choice of font for the face of the clock.
When I write, I'm reminded of a quote by the rock star Sting: "I never finish a song. Eventually, I abandon it." I feel much the same way about my writing. I never finish a story. I write a story and decide if it has at least a complete plot with a denouement of some kind, and then I twiddle with it. Over and over again. Eventually, I abandon it. If it's complete, I let it sit for a while, then revisit it one last time six months later to try and catch every typo, and then I post it.
Sometimes I post it too soon. I found three typos in the Separate stories (Separate Electricities, Separate Responsibilities, and Separate, Together) and I'll upload the bugfixes later today.
When I draw, I don't see the face, or the room I'm drawing, or the building facade (when I'm outside I especially like to draw building facade's, as they're usually easy and have fascinating plays of light and texture). I see the lines. I see the mistakes. I see the places where I've marred the picture and debate giving up. I rarely finish a drawing.
I'm looking at my complete Journal Entries collection, all 346 episodes, a ridiculous number of which are labeled "incomplete," and I know that someday I might actually finish those. The only reason I'll finish those is because the delete button on a computer is absolute, and I can always start over. I know I can produce a thousand words faster than I can draw a picture. Whether other people will get it quite so acutely is still something I can't answer.
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Date: 2005-09-07 04:39 pm (UTC)My artistic goal is free flowing watercolour. The kind where the lines are implied and the colours merge. That is, for the most part, a "put it down once and live with it" endeavor. I aspire to relax enough to enjoy it. Until then, my best art is paper cutting. I can fiddle the patterns to my heart's content, but eventually I have to stop and DO something, and it can't be changed.