When I hear people give the advice that writing is never a waste of time if you’re having fun or you should never feel like a story was a waste of time, you should enjoy the process. This advice I believe is real and true and works for some writers. But at the same time, there are writers who are very stressed when writing and feel better about their work when it’s finished. Not the “I enjoy having written.” But the “I have crippling anxiety and can only tell if my time, effort, and semi-breakdowns were worth something if I complete what I set out to do.”
Not to diminish anyone who agrees or resonates with the first statement, I admire those people a lot and wish I was calm enough to feel the same.
in my years of teaching and coaching, i've noticed there are two kinds of writers: "process" writers and "product" writers. rather, there exists a spectrum from one to the other.
on the process side, you have writers who reach a flow state fairly easily, who can become immersed in a world or idea of their own invention, and they write in large part to seek that immersive state. the end of a project seems more like a tragedy than an achievement because it marks the loss of the immersive state, and it will take energy and discipline and happenstance to find the next. i've also noticed that it becomes harder rather than easier to find that state over time; the more projects you finish, the fewer ideas appeal to you in the same way.
conversely, product writers get to feel that sense of achievement upon completing a project that process writers may lack, and that pleasure is worth the pain and turmoil of the act of creating something. product writing takes a lot of strength, patience, and discipline i think, to do something hard for the reward of having done it. it's the difference between an athlete and a surgeon. a person becomes an athlete for love of the sport, the act of playing. winning is important, but they wouldn't be able to win without first finding joy in the game. a surgeon, on the other hand, probably doesn't get into the job for the fun of operating. the fulfillment is in the operation's success; it's hard work with high risk. but the reward of saving or improving lives is worth it.
admittedly as a process writer it's always been hard for me to wrap my head around product writers. not only do i not have the patience to seek a sense of achievement, i think i'm mostly incapable of relishing any reward at all unless the reward is in the pursuit itself. looking back, i can't think of any single moment i've ever felt a sense of success. but also i've always struggled with concepts like ambition and competition. i've never had any drive to win anything, but also i've never felt much when i lose or fail. sometimes i wish those things mattered more to me, because then i would be a more driven and decisive person, and i'd be more successful in my career.
i know i'm on the extreme end of the process-product divide, and that colors a lot of my perspective of teaching and mentoring. but i think writers can shift on the spectrum depending on where they're at in their writing life or even with whatever project they're working on. i've been trying to have a more product-based mentality recently to at least develop the skill of shifting to the other side when i need to, so that i can get the patience and focus to write a novel that is not just me plopping my heart onto the page and hoping somebody out there cares. product writers have an easier time convincing other people of the value of their story, because the value of the story is a big reason why they write it. a purely product writer, like the surgeon, writes something because they feel that thing needs to exist in the world. meanwhile the only way for a purely process writer to be professionally successful is to happen by sheer coincidence to find an immersive state that also crosses with the interests of the current market. like the athlete, success involves training, hard work, and being at the right place at the right time. sure, churning out 100k words in a couple months and having a blast while doing it is great, but it comes from this wild inner place that can't really be controlled; meanwhile product writers can take that wildness and intentionally shape it into something. when you're feeling jealous of the other side, though, it's important to remember that both the meadow and the garden are equally beautiful.
Hey everyone! I'm alive (no foolin'!) -- I'm just super busy finishing up some big projects. Here's a little preview of one of them: a solo gallery show opening this summer at Nucleus Portland! More details to come soon, but I hope you've all been well (and apologizes to the people I owe replies to, I've been bad about checking messages 😅)
I have noticed that in your artwork, some areas will be really rendered out, while the rest will have a gradient over it or just basic block shadows. I assume its to pull the eye towards a specific area of the piece, but whenever I try it, it looks like I forgot to finish the painting - any tips or tricks for that? Because I am honestly jealous of how you play with the level of detail
ogh idk how to explain it anon I've just simply been practicing it a lot until I got stuff I liked looking at ;u; but I'll try to explain if I can:
my professor back in uni always told me that when it comes to making quick concept illustrations to show to a client or audience you want to be able to make something that looks cohesive enough from 5ft away!
so I've always been trying to make it so that whenever I draw smth the level and scaling of details remain consistent.
Detail, as I look at it, come in a spectrum- for pieces where I emphasize details on certain areas while leaving the rest as gradients as you've mentioned I tend to do it in a way where both the less AND the more detailed parts fall within a certain threshold: again, I want them to look cohesive from a distance while still emphasizing what I want viewers to look at!
What I've noticed with my work is that, barring certain pieces where I did do this kind of stuff on purpose (I love doing designs where it's like! Solid black with gold filigree! The contrast is delicious to me), typically the farther the types of details are from each other on the spectrum the more likely one of them is to look unfinished especially when sitting next to each other.
Even then, when doing solid colors like black, you can still notice whether or not I've decided to make an effort in emphasizing or finishing the silhouette, and can change the feel of the piece depending on how I approach it!
Well, you know what they say. When the going gets tough, the tough get comfortable, make themselves a warm brew (like herbal tea or hot chocolate, par exemple), and snuggle down with lights dimmed and their faces illuminated by laptop screen glow. Here, they sit and watch one of #bob ross' many classic episodes, like Mountain Summit, or Valley View, and enjoy the show's blissfully 80s theme music, simplistic décor, Mr Ross' liberally-buttoned shirt, and soft, yet gravely, timbre. For 30 minutes, they enjoy Mr Ross painting a landscape scene: a lake, a sunset, a mountain. And it is after this point, and only after, that the tough get going.