Never dread doing a major revision on your writing or painting. If it needs to get done, DO IT.

It is like unraveling rows and rows of your knitting to correct a stitch. After the piece is finished, it will have been well worth it.

The painting will tell you when something is still missing or not right.

The painting will tell you to keep on painting it.

The painting will tell you when to stop.

The play will tell you when something is still missing or not right.

The play will tell you to keep on writing it.

The play will tell you when to stop.

When painting from the imagination, ensure that no two faces look alike.

So it is with writing. Ensure that no two characters are alike.

It's called good orchestration.

Never stop working on a painting or a piece of creative writing as long as it tells you that it is not yet done. The more you glaze it with your diligence, the more it will shine. Keep working on it until there is nothing more to work on.

Remember this, that there is no such thing as an overworked painting or piece of creative writing, though there is such a thing as an overworked painter and writer.

Talent and training are a wonderful combination, but it is better to have talent without training than training without talent.

Literature and art are the best nourishment for the soul. Keep the soul well fed, for it has a healthy appetite.

A painting in progress reaches its point of no return when it looks completely different from your initial drafts, when it begins to take on a life of its own, and when it tells you everything it stills needs to complete the picture.

So it is with writing.

In-Depth Writing Exercise 7: Transrenditions

1. Imagine a fantasy object in your mind. Activate your five physical senses in doing so.

How does the object look like in the round?

What are its textures?

What sound(s) does it make?

What does it smell like?

What would it taste like?

2. Write as vivid a description as you can of the object.

3. Make a drawing or painting of the object.

4. Without showing your written description, show the drawing/painting to another writer and ask him/her to write a vivid description of the object.

5. Compare both descriptions.

Which description is more vivid?

Which, more comprehensible to the average reader?

The objective of this exercise is not to compare your writing skills with those of another writer--it is to determine how much fidelity of communication there is in yours.

Never create in competitive mode. You will only find that your most destructive competitor is yourself.

In painting, the addition of any line, plane of color, shape, or figure immediately changes your entire painting.

So it is with creative writing, and remember so as you add sentence upon sentence in completing your work.

It matters little if you spend years painting a portrait, even if your artist friend can paint a portrait in one month, as long as both products are exemplary.

It matters little if you spend years writing a novel, even if your writer friend can write a novel in one month, as long as both products are exemplary.

It is your painting or your piece of writing that will tell you that it is finally done, never the other way around, for the created work, having taken in the mind of its creator, will always have an intelligence of its own.

The mastery of writing and painting are the result not of enrollment in an academy but of the correct and judicious exercise of one's powers of observation.

Always remember this, that a single painting is much more important than the exhibit it is in, and that it should be able to stand alone outside the exhibit and outside of everything else associated with it.

So it is with every work in a literary festival or anthology.

It is the correct sequence to write first, and then paint later.

Because it is DIFFICULT to paint first, and then write later. You will literally be AT A LOSS FOR WORDS.

Painting and writing come into creation through one's personal passion, conviction, experience, habits, and preferences, not via what teachers impose in school.

That is why many brilliant painters do not have Fine Arts degrees, and why many brilliant writers do not have Creative Writing degrees.

And, after all, many Fine Arts graduates still know nothing about the rendition of correct anatomy, and many Creative Writing graduates still know nothing about the correct usage of idioms.