inditing cycles

I have this problem where, even though I think it is of utmost importance to be able to say what you mean, I can’t pen exactly what I want on the first, second, or even third try. I go through cycles of drafts.

Then tend to go like this:

• alpha (surrealism) — pin at least the majority of the idea down so I don’t forget it later.
• beta (impressionism) — start playing around with form, complete sentences.
• gamma (modernism) — revise into something presentable; slap on an interesting title and premise.

There are many parallels one can draw between writing and painting. They are, like all art, both concerned with conveying and sharing remarkable (memorable?) emotions and thoughts. But history as it is emphasizes the role of the brush in Western civilization. So if I am to borrow vocabulary to describe my own form, it will be from the elder arts. That, and I have a great sense of appreciation for masterfully placed color.

My best writing tends to be sporadic, like an Modernist painter: broad strokes of color, creation over form, things scattered everywhere. I have gotten quite good at Realism (yes, there is some objective truth to be communicated. yes, I do recognize that is already within a framework. and no, I don’t think the framework [of business and commerce] is unimportant). I can also imitate Modernism’s close cousin, Impressionism — that shows through in my more highly polished journal entires. (Although, most of the time, my notes tend to look like the mad scribbles of a surrealistic painting.

To go further, formalism, conversationalism, intimate strokes — all not for me. It is really the bang-bang-bang and craziness and barely-below-the-surface that I’m comfortable with.

N.b: I’ve been tagging each post with its stage. Hopefully I’ll be able to get at least five to gamma by Spring break.
P.s: Things for me grind through an amazing number of frameworks before being deposited onto paper. Unlike many other Ts, I recognize the value in feeling the output and verifying its charisma. That’s the hard part to get on paper.