I\u2019ve recently been in the process of finishing up some composition projects I\u2019ve had for a while. That means adding the finishing touches, checking every part over and over and over again, and sending it to the client. With this process coming up multiple times recently, it made me reflect on the process and the \u2018end\u2019 of a project timeline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In truth, what I just told you isn\u2019t really the end of the project. It includes feedback, rounds of revisions, adapting to specific cases, etcetera. And, of course, the famous quote: a creative work is never finished \u2013 it is only abandoned. So, let me tell you about the art of rough drafts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My most recent project included writing for my local youth orchestra \u2013 an orchestra I\u2019m deeply familiar with. I\u2019ve been in the orchestra for over ten years, and I\u2019m still with them, rehearsing every Friday. I\u2019ve written for this orchestra two times before. Yet, I\u2019m still not as familiar with the orchestra as the conductor. I\u2019m reasonably familiar with the weak and strong points in the different sections, but when I sat down with my conductor to discuss the piece, she still pointed out many passages that may be too difficult for some players, or that we won\u2019t be able to fully develop in time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s okay to not nail that the first time; that\u2019s what revisions are for. Now that I\u2019ve gotten some feedback to work with, I know what to change. I know now that in some key moments, I need to simplify some harmonies. Sometimes I need to move some melodies around, to other parts or other instruments. And \u2013 this depends on what kind of project you’re working on \u2013 for this piece, I\u2019m involved in rehearsals as well. That essentially means there is a constant revision process of small changes, as both the arrangement and the orchestra adapt to each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rough drafts are amazing. It allows you to show your progress. It allows you to send your provisional work to someone else and be able to hear what they think. If you\u2019re anything like me, sitting on your own work \u2013 keeping to yourself, constantly worrying about your output and making the creation process an individual exercise \u2013 only results in a creative block and the inability to progress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both you and your work doesn\u2019t have to be perfect. I would argue that it is not only okay, but actually essential to make mistakes and not know everything. Even if your first draft would not be \u2018good enough\u2019 \u2013 whatever that may mean \u2013 a form of review process, either by someone else or by yourself, will guide you towards a better product. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I mentioned a review process \u2018by yourself\u2019. Because even if you don\u2019t have someone else to give you feedback on your work, a workflow using drafts is useful. Just having that explicit distinction between your work-in-progress and a separate \u2018finished\u2019 review draft will give you a different outlook on your work. You may be able to catch things you didn\u2019t see before, and think of new things you hadn\u2019t considered before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just know you don\u2019t have to finish things the first time round. You can work on things. Let things simmer. And suddenly, that work that you have been struggling to finish doesn\u2019t look quite as daunting. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve recently been in the process of finishing up some composition projects I\u2019ve had for a while. That means adding the finishing touches, checking every part over and over and over again, and sending it to the client. With this process coming up multiple times recently, it made me reflect on the process and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"slim_seo":{"title":"Draft versions: everything that\u2019s good was not good before that - Studievereniging Hucbald","description":"I\u2019ve recently been in the process of finishing up some composition projects I\u2019ve had for a while. That means adding the finishing touches, checking every part o"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[153,152],"tags":[193],"class_list":["post-9401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-publications","category-welzijnsrubriek","tag-stress"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}