The Painful, But Rewarding Process: Paint Drying

My Writing Metaphor

Imagine watching paint dry. To most people, that sounds tedious, lingering and pointless.

Paint drying is like watching a blank canvas with nothing on it. The overall process takes forever and doesn’t show much change after it’s dried. Although it doesn’t look like it’s changed, it has. Slowly, but surely the masterpiece is complete.

I relate my writing to watching paint dry. When I write, I need to start early and plan what I’m going to write, just like a painter. Painter’s don’t get a canvas and start painting immediately, it takes practice and preparation to allow their paint to become perfect. Also, after they’re done they revise the painting, by fixing anything that was wrong and even just painting over to make it appear darker. When I write, revising is crucial. I often make silly mistakes that I do not notice until I am revising my work. I am a perfectionist. It is repetitive, but worth the end result. Just like painting, you want to finally be completed with the picture, but you cannot be until it dries.

Writing is an essential skill for life. Something that really makes the phrase “practice makes perfect” realistic. You need to go over and over every writing piece until it is “perfect.” Each time you go back, you find something to fix and a whole idea to change. This is why my writing is like paint drying. It takes a long time, but the end result makes the time spend worthwhile.

This video is a 10-hour clip of paint drying. If you were to skip around throughout the video, you noticed little to no change, but there really is a huge change occurring, just like my writing.

Editing a Paper. N.d. John Hopkins Medicine. Web. 2 May 2016.