Practice Makes Perfect

I've talked about anxiety and procrastination, but there are other creativity stoppers out there. One stopper is skill level. I know that I have all sorts of beautiful paintings in my mind, but I have never developed the skill to bring those imaginary works to life. I'm not too hard on myself about that, however, because I am not trying to make my living as a visual artist. There's not a lot of pressure for me there. I love just puttering around with drawing and painting.

Starting to Develop as an Artist
But what if I did want to make my living in the visual arts? Well, you have to start somewhere. First, I would take classes in visual arts. And after classes, then, I would practice, practice, practice. And little by little, I would be able to bring my skill level up. Sometimes, we creative types can worry so much that "we don't know how," that we stop ourselves from making the attempt. There's that old bug-a-boo, anxiety, raising it's ugly, fangy head. Well, how do we get around that problem?

First of all, realize that there are very few Michaelangelos in the world, but plenty of people make their living (or at least parts of their livings) as artists. You do not, repeat, do not, need to worry about being Michaelangelo. And if that is what you worry about, well, good luck to you. It seems to me that not only do you have to have skill, but also an inordinate amount of luck to be remembered by history. It helps to be famous in your own lifetime, but there are a lot of artists famous in their own time that are now forgotten. Art History PhD candidates wouldn't be able to write their dissertations if they couldn't write about forgotten artists and resurrect their reputations.

I went to an art show not long ago and there were drip paintings along the line of Jackson Pollack's--and the artist would customize them for your home, using your left-over wall paint! I thought that was really cool. (By the way, the artist customized them in an interesting way, adding his own little touches that built on Pollack's work.) They were so quirky and interesting, but they didn't require the drawing skill that some art work does. That's one way to get started. Collage might be another way, since an assembled piece might not require the steady hand of a line drawing. The point is that I think that starting small and getting to work on any creative project is important.

Developing Skills as a Writer
What about "beginning" as a writer? Lots of people think that short stories are a starting point for writers, but in my opinion, writing a good short story is harder than writing a novel. Perhaps that's only for me. But practice for writers might be working on scenes. Perhaps you need to practice writing conflict. Perhaps you need to overcome embarrassment when you are trying to write the sex scenes that your romance novel requires. So practice. Write scenes. And then perhaps you need to practice writing transitions. I know, it's hard to pick something up in the middle, like writing these un-attached scenes would be. How about borrowing characters from another book? (I am not advocating plagarism here. Borrow from the public domain!) Say you are thinking you need to practice conflict? Beatrice and Benedick, maybe? Setting: a villa in Italy (or a bar in Houston). Beatrice: "pleasant-spirited" but with a sharp tongue and a sarcastic sense of humor. Benedick: A soldier, always making jokes and puns. Set-up, their friends are trying to get them together, but they are so similar, they annoy one another. Go ahead, write the scene. No. Don't use Shakespearean language. Write it as if it was set now. I see all sorts of possibilities here, don't you?

So that's one way to practice and develop more skill. And you can do it in secret, without any of your friends laughing at you. Too bad we end up practicing skiing out in public.