Monday, December 20, 2004

Vows of Stability III Returning to the vows of stability for the artist (in my case, for the writer), the idea for this next one is to simply acknowledge and work against my own sense of intertia, entropy, or less flatteringly, laziness. And one note about the thought that excellence is not the goal (see the end of this vow). I certainly don't mean to imply that excellence is not to be pursued, only that excellence is no worthy goal in and of itself. Excellence is a needed tool by which truth is revealed, but when it becomes the mantra, focus on the object at hand is lost. For any artist, excellence in craft is a given pursuit, something to be used in searching for the true, the good, the beautiful, and the real. § 3) I vow to write deeply. I will not yield to easy paths. In the past, one of my chief failures has been to reject out of hand certain suggestions growing out of the work itself, suggestions that bring with them daunting quantities of work. One of my first thoughts is, "Is there an easier way to do this, a more efficient way to get the same result?" While efficiency may be a virtue when resources need to be conserved, it is a vice when it serves as a sorry mask for laziness. The questions to ask when such suggestions arise in the mind are these: Will this idea best solve the present artistic dilemma? Will this path lead to the truth? Does this idea naturally arise from the story elements? In other words, all questions, except for extreme rare cases of exhaustion and spiritual bankruptcy, should be addressed in terms of the artistic goals, not in terms of effort required to accomplish them. If the idea is the best one, then that is the one to be pursued, even if it adds a month or a year to the work. Excellence is not the goal. Truth is the goal. Only Truth will last. 7:02:26 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2004 Jeff Berryman .