Painting & Sculpting

Two approaches to writing

There is an unlikely tale about the brilliant Renaissance artist Michelangelo. He was asked about the difficulties that he must have encountered in sculpting his masterpiece David. But he replied with an unassuming and comical description of his creative process:

It is easy. You just chip away the stone that doesn’t look like David.

I’ve started to notice two “modes” writing can fall into when I need to create something.

I’ve been thinking of them as painting and sculpting.

Painting is additive. Starting from nothing, like a blank page (or empty slide deck) and adding to it. Iterating as you go. Write and the topics and ideas flow and expand.

Sculpting is removing. Pulling things out that don’t need to be there. Starting with everything and chiseling away what’s not needed. Subtracting things that don’t fit the message or point being conveyed.

This idea gives me two approaches.

Paint than Sculpt

Sometimes I start with more ideas then my fingers can keep up with.

It’s all just flowing and I can paint away. Layer after layer, theme after theme.

Adding and iterating and modifying and getting it all out. Figuring out what I want to say.

Creating the stone I’m going to sculpt.

Then I go back and start to sculpt the message. I wrote more than I needed, and likely covered a few different points or sometimes a few different paths to get to my main point.

At my best, I sculpt so the point of view is clear and only what needs to be there is left.

Sculpt than Paint

Like many, sometimes I’m stuck on a blank page. The words don’t come.

I can start by just gathering all the info. Grab the research. Add links to articles and slack posts. This collection becomes the stone to sculpt.

Next I organize it. I find that even just gathering things under headers forces me to frame out what I have.

Then I can start sculpting. Gather things together and remove duplicate info.

As I start to hone in on my point-of-view I can begin to remove whole sections that don’t really need to be there.

After the point is fairly clear, I can begin to write, or paint as the analogy goes. I find this happens naturally at some point in the middle of organizing.

Maybe I’ll add some new things… iterate some new points. But I’m off to the races… blank page no more.

Finishing touches

No matter which path I end up taking - there’s editing.

Editing is really just refining what’s there, not creating anything new.

I’ve found my point and have written it out during the previous phases. The rest is editing for clarity. (And I’m working on brevity 😁)

I share this in hopes it helps someone when they’re staring at a blank page, document, slide deck or canvas and don’t quite know how to get started.

If you can’t paint, try sculpting first.