The Macro View

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A painter who stands too close to his canvas to add colour misses the clarity and the wider angle that a long range view provides. Once in a while he should take a few steps back and look at it from another's eyes. And once he has put in all he had and is ready to call it Complete, he should take a break for a week, then come back and take a fresh look at it. He would see a great deal of irregularities that he had missed in his earlier focus to copy the idea from his mind to the canvas.

This is true for all art. When you write, first put in all that should be put in, in whatever shape they are, presentable or otherwise, so that the skeleton is ready. Now go through each line, linger over them, modify as you deem fit, add flesh and blood and when you are satisfied, call it Complete-Alpha. Stop writing and do something else. Some time later (hours or preferably days later), return and read it again. Glaring ambiguities which were invisible the first time can be smoothed out. Points which were missed can be added. This is Complete-Beta.

At one point, after a great deal of smoothing out, we feel that it is now Complete-Complete. Once that decision is reached, it is recommended not to go back with the critic's eye and make modifications. Otherwise, we may never be able to stop! With each passing day and month and year, our experience and knowledge grows; what we had written a week ago becomes passé, so we would wish to change them to our thoughts of today!

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