sheetrock stories.
I don’t know if you’ve ever had the pleasure of taping and mudding drywall but if you haven’t it goes a little something like this, after you’ve hung the sheetrock on the studs, taped the seams, and filled the big gaps with mud.
Wait for it to dry. Sand it. Add more mud. Wait for it to dry. Sand it with a more fine sander. Add more. Wait. Sand.
You get the idea. It’s a little monotonous and tedious and boring and it reminded me a ton of the final stages of editing a book.
You add, wait, and then remove. Add a little more, wait a little more, remove with a finer filter. Add. You get the idea.
And that all had me thinking of all the similarities of building a wall and building a book.
The studs/frame/main idea start everything.
The sheetrock/big chunks/acts have to hang on that frame. Often requires some cutting.
Filling those gaps and getting it to all flow together requires lots of waiting, and mud (dirt).
Editing it all to be smooth really takes a lot more patience and work. Lots of adding and taking.
A little texture often hides the perfect work and the work that wasn’t quite perfect.
Which made me want to write down a few things for my next creative endeavor.
Frame it right. It’ll save a lot of work later.
Don’t stress too much with the big ideas on that frame. There’s lot of time to smooth out the transitions and gaps and holes.
But it takes a lot of time and work. Don’t rush this time of the project. It might be the most important.
But don’t take too much time on the fine-tuning either. Really good is better than perfect. One exists and the other doesn’t.
The texture/perspective/interpretation people bring to the work is going to either frustrate you or free you to not spend time on things that aren’t important. Choose freedom.