In Poets & Writers, a writer says that writing should be all about subtraction. This statement bolsters the idea of a kitchen sink approach that puts up lots of good, bad and ugly stuff and then precisely removes everything except what is necessary and beautiful. In my former life as an art instructor, I’d tell students if they wanted to sculpt a horse out of a block of stone, all they needed to do was cut away everything that doesn’t look like a horse.
Writing Tip for Today: Good writing is like that horse sculpture, in that we revise (take away) all except the very essence of the story. This is good news because:
- Writing down a whole bunch of stuff and then culling out the best gives you more options than if you only put down exactly what you’re looking for.
- This method helps you draft faster. It’s been said: Write in a white-hot heat; repent at leisure.
- Less is more so much of the time.
- Writers who allow themselves to put down background info, character sketches and extraneous scenes tend to know more about their characters and motivations.
- Unlike rock sculpting, if you lop off the horse’s head by accident, in writing you can always hit undo.
- Write! Fast and furious! Revise with a cold eye.
I find fast and furious writing to be very enlightening to the finished story. Sometimes the perfect phrase or connections come out of that writing when your fingers are flying so you don’t forget a single thought in your head. Yes, I’ve culled whole chapters, but it is one of the best phases of writing.
I’m an art teacher too, I find things like that fascinating, like when I went to see a guitar playoff. All the owners had very expensive guitars and wanted to see whose sounded the best. Coincidentally, they were ALL surgeons! Why are they all drawn to the same thing? Maybe we are drawing in words rather than paint or pencil.
I love the sculpting analogy! I didn’t know you were an art instructor – so am I!