Sterling Terrell

recovering economist

The Artist Senses Their Own

The Artist Senses Their Own

I found this idea that an artist senses other artists to be true.

But, I believe it can be true in many other professions as well.

For instance, a writer can tell if another writer is posturing or not. How? Because if you have done the work, it shows.

Writing 300,000 words a year for 10 years changes you.

The work shows in your attitude, your outlook, and in your eyes.

It is for this same reason that a Navy Seal can spot their own.

The same is probably true for computer programmers, cowboys, and commodity traders.

“The professional senses who has served his time and who hasn’t. Like Alan Ladd and Jack Palance circling each other in Shane, a gun recognizes another gun.”

–Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

Some Passages Jump Out At You, Do They?

Some Passages Jump Out At You, Do They?

Some passages jump out at you when you read them.

They do.

If you have ever written much of anything, you know what I am talking about.

You come across something and your immediate reaction is along the lines of: “Wow, I wish I had written that.”

Sometimes a passage might bring back an old memory, or it might simply begin to move from narrative description to poetry.

I find passages like this frequently with Cormac McCarthy and Ernest Hemingway.

This is another one of those passages for me.

  “And if these mountains had eyes, they would wake to find two strangers in their fences, standing in admiration as a breathing red pours its tinge upon earth’s shore. These mountains, which have seen untold sunrises, long to thunder praise but stand reverent, silent so that man’s weak praise should be given God’s attention.”

–Donald Miller, Through Painted Deserts

Sterling Terrell