A Picture is Worth a 1000 Words

A few weeks back, I ventured to The Tipsy Paintbrush with Cliff.  It's a local paint a picture while you drink some wine establishment.  While not a painter, I was drawn to the offering that evening...

The instructors painting.

It was a winter night as seen through a window.  A full moon, a sky speckled with snowflakes, ice in the corners of the window panes.  It reminded me of something I would see back home in New York.  One of those nights where the air was completely still and the snow muffled all the sounds into an eerie quiet.

I went into the class with low expectations of how my painting would turn out.  I have no problems painting the walls of a room with a roller, but how would I be able to recreate that feeling her painting invoked in me with my own?

I struggled as the class began.  I wanted each and every brushstroke to be masterful!  The instructor let me know if I made a mistake, I could paint over it.  Paint over it?  Never!  My brush wouldn't touch the canvas if I wasn't 100% certain it would be perfect.  Needless to say, I spent a great deal of time over thinking and not a lot of time painting.

Wait.  A.  Minute.  I've been here before!

When I started writing my first novel, I felt the same way I did at the start of this painting class.  I wanted each and every sentence to be masterful!  I stared at the blank page the (like the canvas) wondering how I would ever fill it up with something meaningful.  I didn't want to write, rewrite, and possibly rewrite again.  I wanted it to be perfect from the start.  What good does it do to write, if you aren't writing anything good?  Quite a bit, actually.

You need that base - which may not be much of anything - in order to create that masterpiece.  Think back to art class in school.  You were given a giant lump of clay that you would shape, reshape, squish flat, start over and eventually turn into something kiln worthy.  Maybe something between the reshape and squish flat made it into the final product, but you wouldn't have had that if not for the initial shaping.

I tackled the painting bit by bit.  Some things I did ultimately paint over - see the missing star - and some things remained from the starting point until the very end.  Whether painting or writing, you can't get a finished project if you don't start.

I don't think it came out that bad...

My version.

How do you approach your writing sessions?  Full on with abandon or more reserved and meticulous?  Let me know in the comments section.