The Write Way - Part 2

METHOD AND TECHNIQUE

ART AND CRAFT

Since I was a kid, besides wanting to write, I've been alternately interested in drawing, music composition and audio recording. These are all aspects of one creative process. Writing is most certainly an art form and its craft is in every way comparable to these other things, so for a little while I will use them as a metaphor and will consolidate them ALL as “art.”

Artistic method obviously starts with a basic concept inside your mind. And let no man ever tell you what subjects are “good” or “bad.” Non-artists are self-evidently defined in the artist's mind by their silly expectation that they are qualified to give you suggestions about what or how to create. We who have dealt with this unasked-for advice for all of our lives have learned ways of patiently putting up with it. One of the only real freedoms we have in this world is to for decide for ourselves what we express. Our creative work is always an embryo that may even take many years to gestate until it reaches the point where it is ready to be born.

Artists have something to say, no matter what medium they utilize to say it. They simply can't help themselves. Most don't make art for selfish reasons. The best artists genuinely want to GIVE to other people. Though they are frequently misunderstood and accused as being self-serving or eccentric, this usually isn't the case—at least in their minds. When the concept of the work-in-mind passes beyond pure contemplation and into the conscious need to express it, nothing can nor should stop the artist (or writer) from gratifying that need.

Many budding artists get frustrated when they try to craft their fledgling inner concept into a tangible, outer display. They can see it so clearly in their minds, but what they craft is just not making the point they intended it to. For what it's worth I have some advice about this also.

The great torment of the new artist is to see her projects started but never finished. Over time I've learned that it isn't so much a matter of the artist's talent, as much as it is the time and effort they are willing to put into their work that counts, because that is what actually completes projects. I was not born talented in any of my creative pursuits. But by shear dedication to the honing and molding of any project I was crafting - not stopping until it was as close as it could be to what was originally intended – I found I was able to occasionally, but not always, achieve a certain amount of quality to what I presented to the world as a finished product.

This is important to remember: Michelangelo used to say that when he was sculpting marble, he was simply liberating the final form from the prison of its slab of stone. This in not entirely a metaphor. In other words, if your destiny is to create great art, then it is already a for-gone conclusion that what stands today in front of you as a chunk of marble (or a blank page) will stand tomorrow – and maybe for hundreds of years to come – in a grand gallery, as “David” (or in the case of writing, Romeo and Juliet).

In my career as whatever-the-hell I am, I have found Michelangelo's explanation to be an exceedingly helpful one. When I drew as a child I would start with a pencil, lightly drawing the lines of the image I saw in my mind. Most of the time what I would draft initially was horrible. But with great effort, and confidence in myself to be able to FINISH my work, I would attack it, leaving the parts that worked alone, gradually darkening-in those lines until they were able to be drawn-over with a permanent pen. Then I'd erase and re-do the parts that didn't work, re-re-doing those over and over again in this same way until the image was complete. This is how one can train one's self.

I was never one of those people who could immediately put their imagination down in final form on a piece of drawing paper in one fall-swoop. But I was highly motivated by NEEDING to see on the outside what I saw on the inside. And, though I probably have more faults than positive attributes, I admit being happy to say that I am especially, even painfully, tenacious and I am not (under most circumstances) a quitter.

So take it from me, if you work hard enough and long enough even if you are not all that naturally proficient, you can still express what you want to express. It is only a function of TIME and EFFORT. And through hours, days, weeks, months and years of intensive repetition of this method of persistence you will suddenly find yourself BECOMING proficient, as if by a miracle. The hard work of sticking to it, no matter how frustrating it can get sometimes, WILL pay off and you will be completely surprised by your own ability to finish work after work in a shorter amount of time, and with less blood, sweat and tears expended; work that you once wished you could have done as efficiently as the other kids seemed to. And you will grow to reach higher standards of quality than you ever knew you could achieve. Believe it!

This doesn't mean people will find your work appealing. Nor does it mean that you will be successful in a career based on your artistry (or your writing). But, it does mean that you can be satisfied in your own mind with the fruit of your labors and that you were able to liberate the final form from a stone slab that was once only a thought.

I found all of this to be true when doing multi-track audio recording as well. My interest in audio recording was for purely experimental sound-craft, while using more conventional poetry to express my philosophies and personal experiences seemed to fit right in to the process. Now that process is relatively simple for me. I write the song, including the chord structure and lyrics, and have a pretty clear idea about what it should sound like, all inside my mind. I have had so much experience composing in this way now, that there is really no longer a need for physically working things out on an instrument. I do have to say that playing around on a guitar or piano is also a very fruitful way to come up with new ideas too. Yet, the primary crafting of the music can be done mentally.

When the work is ready to be “born,” I lay down a rough guitar line, synced to a “click track” (like the first pencil lines of a drawing). With digital technology it is easy to then take pieces that are of poor quality, setting A and B loop points, repeating that one section, improving it over and over again, until it is of what I consider to be passable quality.

This is just like making the lines that work in the drawing process more solid until they can be considered permanent. Once that recorded track is complete, the next one will be laid down (piano or drums or bass or vocals, etc...), with the same process being applied to each. Again, my music has not seemed to appeal to other people as I once hoped it would, but I AM satisfied that I have translated what were inner ideas into a reasonably close musical facsimile that can live on its own in the outside world.

The writing process is fundamentally the same as what I've said above about the artistic process. But, in some ways it is a bit easier.  Psychologically, it seems the most gratifying thing that I compose. This is because very often after drawing or recording music I feel like the work will be the latest, greatest thing to be beheld by other people. All the same, with further viewing or listening in the days that follow I notice that my enthusiasm for it wanes. And with some disappointment my fears for the perceived mediocrity of the work is often confirmed by the lack of enthusiasm from other people who it is presented to. This does not happen as often with my prose. The time spent on it usually pays off.  Am I more realistic about my writing? Do I have a better innate understanding of what appeals to readers? Do I have a greater facility for the process than with drawing or music? I have spent many a sleepless night searching for answers to these questions. I have never found them.

Getting back to my original point here, though, and applying it to your writing... You should write your rough draft not caring how it will read, initially. Then through time, effort and intentional crafting it will become what you want it to be. When it comes to starting a work: just keep writing. Fill the pages—that is your stone. Without the marble there can never be the “David.”

REWRITING AND EDITING YOUR WORK

Finally, comes the re-writing process; deleting the lines that don't work and replacing them with ones that do. The solidification begins to develop. And – very much like digital recording – cutting, copying and pasting, reorganizing and restructuring is made easy with modern word processing technology. The only time-consuming, but necessary, part of writing comes with editing by doing the complete “read-through.” This really is the place where things are cleaned up and primed for presentation. It only takes about three to four read-throughs to complete an essay of blog-able length.

For example, in this particular post I wrote down a basic draft (the sentence stage) quickly—about 4 pages at 14 point size, using the Georgia font; changing words in each sentence as best I could, but not spending too much time doing this, as I knew I would have several more chances to alter them. I read it through once (in the paragraph stage), changing what didn't work into what worked—deleting and replacing, cutting and pasting, moving whole paragraphs around if necessary. Then, upon the second read-through (the page stage) there were only a few things to change in that way. Upon the third read-through (the document stage) I was only changing one or two words per paragraph, mostly diversifying repetitiously used words with more uncommonly used synonyms. On the fourth read-through (the polishing stage) there were only a few changes to be made. I spell check continuously. Then, usually, I will do one final read-though when I go online to publish the post. Blogger has a crappy spell-check, but sometimes it will catch errors that were entered into my computer's dictionary by accident. If images or audio or video flash players are to be included that is when they are linked or uploaded. And, viola! A new post lives.

[It is so ironic to have published this with so many typos.  I think I snagged them all, but please forgive if not.  ONe thing that is really hard is catching your own typos.  Your eyes see what you MEANT instead of what is actually there...Please check in for the next post.]