Vision is Always Ahead of Execution
In the book Art & Fear, David Bayles and Ted Orland say:
“Vision, Uncertainty, and Knowledge of Materials are inevitabilities that all artists must acknowledge and learn from: vision is always ahead of execution, knowledge of materials is your contact with reality, and uncertainty is a virtue.”
This book is full of so much advice and inspiration for the writer’s (or any creative’s) life, and this idea is a crucial one I return to time and again, since it is such an integral part of the creative process.
If you’ve never seen this video by Ira Glass, take a couple of minutes and watch it now. He says something very similar – that especially at the beginning of your career as a creative, your work isn’t very good, and it can seem like there’s an unbridgeable gap between the work you can produce and the work you see from established creators.
The thing is, “The Gap” doesn’t necessarily go away, even when you do start producing work that others might say is “good.” This is because your vision usually expands beyond your ability to execute it at any level.
You finally finished a novel? Great! How about a trilogy?
Your individual poems started getting acceptances in literary magazines? Great! How about a chapbook on that particular theme you can’t seem to let go of in your work?
Your essays seem to be getting a wider audience on Medium, or Salon, of HuffPost? Great! How about developing a collection, or a hybrid self-help/memoir?
It’s not just about expanding in terms of scope, of course. It’s also about expanding in terms of quality. But usually an increase in scope also requires an increase in quality. Still, there are always little jumps to make. You finally figured out how to create a compelling plot, but your characters are wooden. The endings of your essays are strong, but you struggle to write openings that hook the reader. And so on.
This can be discouraging! It’s like someone is always moving the goalposts, or that golden ring is always just out of reach.
However, think of this: if your vision wasn’t ahead of your execution, you would be bored. There would be nothing new to discover, and no way to grow. The vision is what pulls you forward, keeps you reaching for the next level of mastery.
Instead of feeling discouraged by The Gap, reframe your mindset to one of growth. Focus on progress vs. product or perfection. Instead of viewing your creative work as a straight road to the top of the mountain, see it as a winding trail that leads through woods, marshes, fields; up hill and down; through deserts and over tricky fast-flowing rivers and under wide oceans. It’s the ultimate adventure, but you don’t have to be an ultra-adventurer to do it. Become fascinated with the journey. Revel in it.
Many artists from all fields have felt the pain of The Gap. They experienced feelings of failure and despair over not realizing their vision, or others not understanding what they were trying to do. Some eventually achieved great success in their lifetimes, others did not. Learning to follow your own path and your own process is crucial to any artist. Failure is part of that process, and you can always learn as much or more from what didn’t work as you can from what did.
Later in Art & Fear, Bayles and Orland say:
“A finished piece is... a test of correspondence between imagination and execution... the more common obstacle to achieving that correspondence is not undisciplined execution, but undisciplined imagination.”
This means not committing to your vision for the piece. It’s normal to follow lots of pathways in your first draft, to see where they lead. But eventually you have to commit, and then you start to shape and create according to your vision. You may not even realize what that vision is until you get through a draft (or two, or three).
You begin to accept that every sentence takes away possibilities, until you are left with what the piece actually is vs. all the other options of what could have been. And that is okay. That is what this piece looks like. If you want, you can put it into dialogue with other pieces later on. You can expand your vision. You can tell new stories with the same themes.
Finally, Bayles and Orland say:
“Most artists don’t dream of making great art – they daydream about having made great art.”
That is because creating something out of our imaginations is hard. Putting what we conceive into material form is challenging. We have to commit not only to our ideas, but to the process of bringing our vision into the world again and again. We hit lots of roadblocks: our own mind telling us to quit; the indifference or rejection of the outside world; fear of failure or success (or of being known, and judged).
Just having the vision isn’t enough. You have to have the will to execute that vision despite all the internal and external obstacles. The vision is the starting point, and it may be a very blurry vision!
You need to be willing to sit with that uncertainty. To be willing to let the vision gradually materialize. To take the risks of creating without knowing how it will turn out. To commit to doing the work – to showing up on the page, whether you feel like it or not, whether your vision is clear on a particular day or not.
How to do this?
Continue to develop your craft
Commit to regular practice
Read a lot
Focus on one goal at a time – not a novel, but this chapter, or this scene
Be open to feedback but remember it’s your vision
Don’t be daunted by The Gap! It’s a normal part of the creative process. Embrace it, work with it, learn to let it push you forward to create something only you can create. A vision without the execution is just a dream. Only you have the power to consistently work to make it a reality.
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