Craftsmanship to Artistry: Little by Little

To become an author means moving beyond the simple process of putting words on paper. However, as much as we're all looking for shortcuts, to speak truth, there aren't any. 

One could go to countless writers workshops and book fairs, read every novel on every “Best Literature” list imaginable, and consume every how-to manual, article, and brochure from every famous, near-famous, and infamous author in Mosquitoville, Vermont, to no avail. 

Oh, you are sure to find something useful to make the composition process easier, but to actually complete a work of art requires work. 

And lots of it. 

I've always known that, but I didn't expect to have the fact reinforced at a guitar concert.

Friday night, guitar legend Tommy Emmanuel played at the Burnsville (MN) Performing Art Center and gave not only a concert, but also a very instructive writing lesson.

It was meant to be a guitar lesson, but the similarities between creating an artistic guitar composition and writing an artistic novel are quite evident, at least as Emmanuel explains the process. 

After playing his medley of the Beatles’ “Daytripper” and “Lady Madonna,” he asked somewhat rhetorically if the audience wanted to see how he created the arrangement where he not only plays the iconic instrumental foundation of both songs, but also plays the vocal-melody lines as well—simultaneously. It didn't take much to convince him that the lesson would be appreciated.

He broke down the process thusly:

“You don’t learn the two lines separately, then put them together,” he said. “You learn and put them together at the same time.”

The silence following that revelation spoke a resounding, "Uh ...wha' ... you learn them at the same time? HUH?!?!?"

First, he explained, you need an idea. His original idea was simply doing "Lady Madonna." Then, he developed the notion of doing both the bass and lead not by the use of electronics, but by playing both parts at the same time.

"Oh, sure," we thought. "Sounds simple ... if you have three guitars, a piano, and twelve hands!"

Nobody said it aloud, but Emmanuel obviously heard our thoughts. He smiled.

With the goal firmly in place, he explained, he decided to break the project into manageable components—two measures at a time. He began slowly, note by note, until those two measures matched his original conception of how it should sound. Then he repeated those building blocks ... and repeated them ... and repeated them until his fingers played them automatically, until the skills and techniques took over and playing those two bars required no mental effort at all.

Then he constructed the next two measures, replicating the process until he matched the proficiency he had gained with the first two bars. 

Satisfied that he had mastered that piece, he joined it with the original measures, repeated the process, developed two more bars, added, perfected ... and so on.

Sound like a lot of effort? That was his point: To create good work takes effort and lots of it.

While he demonstrated, the thought struck me, "The process is the same with writing. You take a basic idea, develop it, then refine it bit by bit, slowly adding the pieces until you have a whole."

The most important part of Emmanuel’s mini-lesson, however, was still to come. 

When you have the whole, you’re not finished, he said. What you’ve done is simply craft a piece by honing your skills and connecting all the elements. The heart of Emmanuel's lesson, therefore, was, "Then I took that collection and added my own ideas to it to make it art." In other words, the next step is turning craftsmanship into artistry.

Again, the audience breathed a silent, "Huh?" Again, Emmanuel smiled. Then, he continued with the concert, allowing the next hour of music speak for him.

The best way for those reading this blog to see how Emmanuel's process works is to watch his medley on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPkQn5nDTZs or listen to it on his The Journey Continues album. As the songs unfold, you immediately realize this is NOT what Lennon and McCartney had in mind when they originally wrote these songs. This is something entirely different, something that exists in its own universe. 

Not better. Not worse. Just totally unique, not even to be compared. Both the Beatles' and Emmanuel's versions stand alone as works of art.

Yes, the original songs are there, but Emmanuel takes all the skills and techniques he has learned and developed over years of playing, and he utilizes them to develop something even he didn’t hear when the project first occurred to him.

The same is necessarily true of fiction writing. Rather than allow your story to appear fully formed like a marble statue sculpted by a stonesmith with only two chisels and a ball pein hammer, permit your concept to grow, to develop, to discover its unique personality.

Your work will multiply exponentially. Your stack of revised hard copies will grow to resemble a Devil's Tower rising from the center of your office floor. The neon yellow highlighters you use to mark areas of concern will wear out by the crate. Apple will revise OSX so many times, they'll run through every species of animal that ever existed in reality and JK Rowling's imagination. 

But, Lord, it will be fun!

Tommy Emmanuel's creative process—conceive an idea, compile small components into a basic expression of that idea, and shape the resulting craftwork into art—is foundational to any artistic expression ESPECIALLY writing. 

Work? Of course, it's work. Hard work. But work that is ultimately fun and satisfying. Kind of like watching a musician like Tommy Emmanuel.

For more videos and music, as well the URL address for the official Tommy Emmanuel website, see the "Recommendations for All Things Tommy Emmanuel" page.