From Imagination to Paper

It's been the perennial problem for me, and I'm sure other creative types like me -- how do you get the vision in your head to look right on paper? As an artist and musician as well as a writer, I'm familiar with this problem.

Actually, I think my experiences with the other arts have helped me learn how to write effectively. In art, you learn techniques of different brush strokes, study the strengths and weaknesses of different media, and practice copying life objects onto paper -- the more you learn, the greater your ability to be true to your vision becomes. The same applies to musical composition. You need to know music theory -- the duration and pitch of notes, chords, scales, figures -- as well as the unique timbres and colours of different instruments, before you can compose a symphony.

So I keep learning words, arranging them in different, new ways while still obeying the laws of grammar. That way I can get the ideas in my head into a readable form.

But, of course, since learning never stops, there comes a point when I have to write a book with only the tools I have at present. That's where I have to toss perfectionism out the window, because it will only hold me back from learning anything at all.

To sum up -- I guess writing, like anything in life, is about striving to become better while giving up the hope of being perfect.