Art is endless possibilities.

A couple of things I want to get off my chest today that I think are connected.

The first is an article I read not too long ago.  I didn't really pay that much attention to it at first, so I don't remember where I read it.  Basically, it said that with the internet, writer's don't have to wait forever for answers from publishers.

Therefore, writer's didn't have to waste so much time on "daydreaming" -- which was a useless and unproductive activity.

At the time I read it, I had a visceral rejection, though I didn't put much thought into it.  Just a sort of:  "Strange -- I don't believe that."

But it started gnawing on me as time went on.  Or more to the point, I started gnawing on me as I daydreamed my days away.

First of all, daydreaming to me is integral to motivating myself to writing.  Who doesn't dream of everyone reading their book?  Of a movie being made?  And so on?

But I also believe for me it's part of the creative process -- that daydreaming mode in a sense is my writing mode.  I'm floating in never-never land.

I can't understand anyone who could be so cold blooded as to want -- to actually try -- to take daydreaming out of the process of creation.

Connected to this -- since I started back writing a couple years ago, I've had two different people insist that I simply must read a book that tell me "How" to write a book.  A magic formula book that gives me the mechanics to write.

Let me say upfront that I don't think learning how to write is a bad thing.  I'm at a point in my journey where I prefer to be self-contained and not distracted by outside influences.  In my defense, I spend many many years being open to all input, but now feel it's time to do my own thing.

I had an argument with a member of writer's group -- which I regret since he hasn't come back -- who absolutely insisted no real "writer" writes without a complete outline etc. etc.  He was under the influence of a book that told him exactly the mechanics of how to do it.

(There was also a recent article about how Hollywood is being "destroyed" by a screenwriting manual that almost every movie is following...)

But to me the 'art' of writing is doing your own individual thing.

Which brings me to what I think connects the two things.

Art is different for everyone.  Not just writing, but music and painting and acting; each person does it different.

If you're an accountant, there is a way you do it.  If you are in most occupations, there is a right way and a wrong way.

With art -- the wrong way can be right for one person and the right way can be wrong for another.

I mean, to me, that's what make is "art" -- that there are endless possibilities.  (Which can't be contained in a How-To book.)

So daydream away and write what you want.