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Letting go to make room for the things you want

Sometime back I read that Stephen King, in his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft wrote:

“Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.”

He wasn’t the first person to say that writers need to “kill their darlings”, but that was the first I’d heard it.

If you haven’t heard that phrase before, it’s a writer’s term that means no matter how wonderful a character is, if it detracts from the story, or doesn’t belong there, you need to remove it.

For artists this is equally true – you can’t ever give up the vision for the detail.

A completed piece isn’t made up of a collection of perfect details placed together but rather a whole that conveys the vision.
Together – all the parts in their united service of the whole – become perfect, but never on their own.

That’s why it’s not unusual for artists to love a section of work and still scrub it off, work over it and remove it – because while it’s gorgeous, or delightful, that charmingly executed little passage of paint doesn’t serve the whole.

I’ve painted over, sanded, and even cut up paintings that weren’t where they needed to be (The white sandpaper works a treat for paintings)

This idea of letting go can apply to all areas of your life.

Q: What belief, habit, or practice, is no longer serving you?

Q: What old work is cluttering up your studio that it’s time to move on?

Q: What materials are you hanging on to just in case it comes in handy one day?

Q: What old paperwork is sitting in your files (‘rejection’ letters, years old bills and documents)

Sometimes it can be hard to let things go, but sometimes we don’t let things go simply because we aren’t paying attention – and then we expect just to add more and more on top of what we already have, or do or believe which leaves us feeling overwhelmed…which brings me to this quote…

“The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.” – John Maynard Keynes

If you want to let new exciting things in, it’s time to make room for them.

Siobhan cleaned her studio and sold three paintings that same day.
Julia organised her studio and got a commission the same day
Steven organised his studio, reported feeling lighter, and made progress on a painting he’d been working on for some time.

Coincidence? I think not.

Put aside 10 minutes this week to journal on these two questions

Q: What are you ready to let go of?

Q: What are you ready to welcome in?

And then go and declutter something

Come back and let me know in the comments if you found that helpful

Until next time, happy creating
Amanda