Arranging as a Subtractive Process
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Arranging as a Subtractive Process
Another challenge we might call demo-itis. Demo-itis happens when the artist has clung too tightly, for too long, to their first draft. The danger of living with the unfinished project for too long is that the more often an artist is exposed to a particular draft of a work, the more final that form can become in their mind. A musician might record
... See moreRick Rubin • The Creative Act: A Way of Being: The Sunday Times bestseller
Distilling a work to get it as close to its essence as possible is a useful and informative practice. Notice how many pieces you can remove before the work you’re making ceases to be the work you’re making. Refine it to the point where it is stripped bare, in its least decorative form yet still intact. With nothing extra. Sometimes the ornamentatio
... See moreRick Rubin • The Creative Act: A Way of Being
The Craft phase is not just a building up. It is also a breaking down. The goal of developing the work can be accomplished through a pruning process of small cuts. We decide which details and directions might be removed, so that more energy and focus can be used to feed the core elements.
Rick Rubin • The Creative Act: A Way of Being: The Sunday Times bestseller
Capture vs process
is one more important
or are they two phases to oscillate between?
As I begin to structure my notes I also have to preserve the utility of the free writing which often yields insights.
The difficult thing here is to handle the exchange between the analytics part of the brain that seeks to organize every detail, and the creative side
I would go so far as to suggest that you should always write your lead (redoing it and polishing it until you are satisfied that it will serve) before you go at the big pile of raw material and sort it into a structure.
John McPhee • Draft No. 4
every question that emerges out of our slip-box will naturally and handily come with material to work with. If we look into our slip-box to see where clusters have built up, we not only see possible topics, but topics we have already worked on – even if we were not able to see it up front. The idea that nobody ever starts from scratch suddenly beco
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