Parallels (and differences) in creative endeavors
I’ve long wanted to be a writer and have spent the last three decades taking notes and coming up with ideas for a grand novel someday. I also come from a family of artists, one of which is so highly critically that I simply decided not to draw.
Except that I secretly continued to draw.
And a transformation in my life has opened up my spring of inspiration and albeit slowly, I am writing.
I’ll share more about both of these areas in my life later, but I found an interesting parallel (and lack of one) in my new creative endeavors.
While reading a how-to book on drawing technique, I read the advice that the only way to draw well is to have an internal dialogue not with what you are drawing, but with the subject.
And eureka! That is exactly the key to opening the dam and letting my writing flow out too. When I write, I no longer think, “that sentence isn’t right” or “What I have on the page doesn’t make sense” as much as I keep following the story in my head.
On the other hand, as I am also diving into slr photography, there is a hurdle of vocabulary and settings I must learn before I can relax and have a conversation with the subject.
As I’m writing this, I see reasons that might explain the difference or even diminish it but for now I’d like to hold this thought and ask what you think.
Do you notice a pattern in how you create and how you learn?
