No, I don’t mean the King of Pop. Rather, I’m reading “On Writing” by Stephen King. He offers two lessons to keep in mind when writing. I think these tidbits apply to any artistic endeavor.
1. The most important thing is that the writer’s original perception of the character(s) may be as erroneous as the reader’s.
2. Stopping a piece of work just because it’s hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea. Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it.
With writing, I can definitely relate to number 1. The other day I noticed how drastically my characters have changed over the last 3 weeks. I had to go back and rewrite a bunch of the early stuff because it didn’t make sense with who they were anymore. In this case, the characters have become darker, and more flawed. This is what makes them “human”. I think it just took me some time to get to know them. I think this is the case for painting, or any other art form. You start with a basic idea, but once you get going, sometimes it just “speaks” to you and says, “No, I want to be created THIS way.” And of course you have to listen.
#2 applies to anything in life worth doing doesn’t it? But especially with creative challenges. There will always be times where the creativity just isn’t flowing. Some days I only manage to get 2 sentences out during my allotted writing hour. Editing movies is the same way. Sometimes I’m in the zone, and it flows effortlessly, other times any little thing that can distract me away from creating is welcomed!
I guess what I get from all this is the gentle reminder to not set anything in stone. Allow all aspects of your life to breathe and flow and become what THEY need to become, not what you force upon them. Keep on pushing forward when you feel stuck. You never know when the “stuckness” will break free, so you must stay true to the work and keep nudging it forward.