|
IN THIS ISSUE
Feature:
Becoming a (Re)visionary
Post Haste: Blog links you may have missed
A-musing notions
Cross-pollination
|
|
WHAT'S COMING ?
Podcasts, e-guides and other great content
More tips and tools
More cool links!!
|
|
|
|
Beating the "blue-pencil" blues
|
When I was a teenager and had just decided to make journalism my career, I fancied myself a writer – never an editor. Writers had all the fun, it seemed – they were the ones out in the field, watching events unfold and scurrying for the nearest telephone (this was pre-Internet) to dictate their masterpiece to the publication on the other end of the line. Didn’t writers do all the hard work? Weren’t they the ones actually creating the story, and the editor just made sure it looked all right before being printed?
Fast forward a quarter century, and I’m making my living … editing! Not only did I eventually realize that I was just as good an editor as I was a writer, I also came to understand that editing could be just as challenging and appealing as writing. I also came to see, the longer I stayed in the profession, that the two tasks were intertwined – one couldn’t be a good editor without being good at writing, and no writer is truly great who cannot self-edit, at least a little bit.
This month, I use a blog post I saw recently as a jumping off place to discuss how being able to edit one’s creative work – regardless of the genre being worked in – is integral to the completion of the final product. There are also links to recent posts on Creative Liberty blog and the usual assortment of cool links to encourage cross-pollination.
Enjoy! If this newsletter sparks comments, ideas, suggestions, reactions, etc., please e-mail me at lizmassey68@hotmail.com.
— Liz Massey
|
Becoming a (Re)visionary
Editing's role in releasing your creative powers
|
Working as an editor has its ups and downs. On the upside, I get to talk shop with some great writers, and I enjoy helping people improve their work. On the downside, there are some writers who believe all editors are ogres sent straight from hell and that editing shuts down their creative process. (Unfortunately, these are often the same people who turn in the poorest quality work!)
You can imagine my delight, then, when I found this post by Kat French, a contributor to the Thoughtwrestling blog, which discusses the creative power of editing. Titled “The Creative Value of Editing,” it discusses editing in a deliberately broad artistic context – one that places the act at the center of the creative process.
According to Kat, all creative people face a similar menace as they assemble their creative output: clutter. She asserts in her post that “clutter kills your creative intent,” and provides a lovely non-writing-related example from the Design Star reality TV series, in which a team was criticized for inadequately editing their concept for a cover photo idea. It’s not hard to generate parallels in other fields – the song that goes on too long, the painting lacking focus or a distinct vantage point, the video with seemingly no beginning or ending. Editing is far more than proofreading and fact checking printed materials; in fact, as Kat puts it,
"Editing is removing anything that doesn’t contribute to your creative intent and vision."
I spend a lot of time on my blog discussing clutter and ways to avoid it, because I’ve found it to be a major roadblock to developing and maintaining creative momentum. The most challenging part of editing in a creativity-enhancing way is keeping criticism of a raw work of art focused on actionable, specific suggestions. It’s not enough to react negatively to something in a piece – for an editing suggestion to be useful, there must be something that can be added, subtracted, or changed in order for your “intent and vision” to shine through more brightly.
To help make the creative editing process more of a joy, here are a few suggestions, based on my experience working as an editor and the experiences of other artists.
- Begin with the end in mind. Your desired outcome doesn’t have to come to pass for you to learn something, but it helps to have some outcome in mind to fuel your initial creative journey.
- Describe your work-in-progress in one sentence/phrase/image. This clarifies your intent and vision and can help you determine what is extraneous to that.
- Consider synergy as you make your choices. The impact of a single element in a piece should contribute to something greater than the sum of the parts. If it doesn’t, you may need to, as the saying goes, “Murder your darlings.”
- Finally, make time to edit. Many of us are time-starved, but give your work a chance to breathe, and yourself a chance to step away from it. Come back when you have time to experience it fully, and think clearly about what you can do to make the next version better.
More on editing
Two early (2008) posts from my blog on non-fiction writing, Write Livelihood.
|
Post haste
Recent posts to Creative Liberty blog you may have missed
|
A podcast interview with Jeffrey Baumgartner, an entrepreneur and business innovation expert whose main area of business today is the development and international marketing of Jenni Idea Management software as a service.
A “virtual” panel discussion featuring four experts discussing the best ways to use card decks and toys to spur creative ideas and action.
|
A-musing notions
Muse? Genius? Either way, creativity's a gift from the universe
|
|
Matt Cardin, a horror writer and college writing instructor, presents a provocative guest post arguing that following an artistic muse, instead of relying on our ego or individual consciousness to produce artwork, can have some very positive effects on one's output, not to mention our mental health!
Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of "Eat, Pray, Love," discusses in this wonderful TED talk the impossible things we expect from artists and innovators -- and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius who guides our work and sparks our inspirations.
|
Cross-pollination
Cool links to stimulate your brain
|
|
Fascinating report on the development of the Lifeplayer, an MP3 player that can also receive radio broadcasts. It was developed by Kristine Pearson of Lifeline Energy, and designed for rural women and communities in isolated areas of Africa. It has enough memory to store and play podcasts on topics of interest to itinerant herders and farmers (weather, agriculture reports) as well as educational topics for families whose members cannot leave their livestock or farms to go to school.
Kumi Yamashita, a talented Japanese artist, is famous for creating unique art by casting light over strategically placed objects. Very cool ideas in the vein of using negative space ... or in this case lack of light to create an image.
Downloadable applications for smart phones such as the iPhone and Android are providing new media for digital artists to sell their work and develop a following.
|
|
The other stuff ...
Creative Liberation, Vol. 2, No. 4, September 2010, All Rights Reserved.
|
|
|
