I was given a choice. The same choice we all have.
Do it right or do it again.
I did it again. Seven times.
I never got it right. It felt like I never would.
As I finished the seventh time, I realized the more times I did it, the less it looked like the first. The further away from my spark of inspiration.
The worse my sketch got.
That first spark was lost in smoke as I tried for perfect flames.
Gone.
Killed by my efforts to make it better and better.
I threw the sketchpad and cried. My tears further drowned the fire of my inspiration.
Then I glimpsed the first sketch. It wasn't any good. It didn't capture my mental image correctly. The proportions were skewed. I had thrown it away in trying for better.
It was better than any of the others. More energy. More emotion. More fire.
Maybe I didn't do it wrong the first time.
Maybe it was O.K. to not have been perfect that first time.
It was still beautiful.
I could do better with the next spark.
It wouldn't be perfect either.
But I could make each one better as I went.
Footnotes
Title, The Seventh Sketch, borrowed from Herkus Kuncius
You're welcome :D I really wrote this to remind myself not to ruin Elfboy by rewriting it too many times. I have a feeling it would turn into a completely different story and I don't want that :) I did that to a book once and you wouldn't even recognize it to be the same story as the first draft :DD
This shows something so integral to art, even writing. Sometimes we try so hard for our stories to be perfect that we kill them. The sparks do get better if given time. There are some advantages to letting a story sit for a while. Thanks for this. :)
4 Comments
Quille
You're welcome :D I really wrote this to remind myself not to ruin Elfboy by rewriting it too many times. I have a feeling it would turn into a completely different story and I don't want that :) I did that to a book once and you wouldn't even recognize it to be the same story as the first draft :DD
Silver Pen
This shows something so integral to art, even writing. Sometimes we try so hard for our stories to be perfect that we kill them. The sparks do get better if given time. There are some advantages to letting a story sit for a while. Thanks for this. :)
Blotted Ink with a Broken Quill
Nice job!
RNE
Awesome as always.