Tuesday, June 12, 2018
My dad on editing
Over at my dad's blog, this week he explores the idea of editing. Here is part of what he said (though you should follow this link and read the whole thing):
One of the hardest tasks a musician, writer or artist has is to edit their ideas, feelings and discoveries. Sometimes this means you have to throw out some beautiful stuff in order to simplify and make your message more easily understood. We can be arrogant souls who believe all our experiences and ideas are important. We go on and on trying to prove just how interesting we can be. Unfortunately this approach sometimes only shows just how boring we can be. We can also have an idea that is strong enough to stand on its own, but gets in the way of telling the story.
Shedding some stuff will ask your listener or reader to fill in the blanks and will get them more involved. The longer an artist works at his/her craft the better they are at editing.
I have been thinking a lot about editing myself, lately. I tend to be more of a build-outer rather than an editor; that is, I start with a small thing and build out from that when I write, rather than sculpting out from something bigger than what I need. So what is my process if it is not editing? I'm not really sure, but I'm going to put some thought into that.
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Your dad on editing is brilliant. The absolute necessity of cutting through our arrogance and self-worship and throwing out the beautiful to get to a transmittable version of our truth. So incisive!
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