Over the years I’ve found that sometimes, at least with artistic conundrums, the best solution is to run away.

Let me explain.

Sometimes in writing, illustration, or composing music, the artist manages to paint himself into a corner. The sentence that was going so well suddenly comes to a phrase that doesn’t have a good ending, the music takes a run that can’t be favorably resolved, or the book cover illustration has an element that just doesn’t look right.

And the situation remains no matter how much tinkering is done.

I used to waste untold time trying to fix such things. Now I just cut out the troublesome part and move on. Almost always the illustration (or writing or music) is viable when these tiny cancers are removed.

I’m not saying to abandon whole works – often beginning writers, illustrators, and musicians do just that. They get to the creative stumbling block and abandon their whole work. Rather, I’m suggesting some judicious surgery, cutting out only that part that isn’t working and, if necessary (it often is not) replacing it with something that will work. Doing this will often salvage a work that at first seems irredeemable.

To put it in the vernacular: No problem is too big to run away from.

Find the trouble spot and remove it. Don’t cling to those things that are creating stumbling blocks to the overall effort. Most work will be all the better with a small omission rather than a overworked repair job.

Insanity is trying to do the same thing over and over, even though it never works to the individual’s advantage.

Trying over and over to fix the unfixable problem can also drive you insane.

My advice: Run away to better things.

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Duncan Long is a freelance book cover illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See his cover illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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