Try to read your own work as a stranger would read it, or even better, as an enemy would.
And sometimes the question that you pose or the project that you start yourself turns into something else, you know, but at least it gets you started.
And the part about being a professional artist is that you can tell and you can do it over again, even if you can't say how you got there exactly.
But part of the enjoyment I take in it is finding the most efficient way to do it, which doesn't mean the corrections aren't made. I like to have a feeling of the whole task before I start, even if it changes.
But if you can find that spot - I suppose it's like running - I used to be a swimmer and swim laps, and you just have to be there with what you're doing.
Pete and Repeat were sitting on a wall. Pete fell off. Who was left? Repeat.
I like to combine different aspects in my work, to cover different areas, but I do see them as being separate.
If there's ever a character who can only serve one metaphor, I'll probably tell one story with that character and be done with it.
The work of cultivating experiences called "peak experiences" or "mystic moments" or "breakthroughs" until they become more accessible is part of the essential nature of genuine spiritual discipline. These are moments, at the very least, of approaching the experiential verification that there does exist something Higher within and perhaps also outside of ourselves. Moments at the very least of approaching what the religions call God.
I've had dreams about tricks.
Those thoughts are truth which guide us to beneficial interaction with sensible particulars as they occur, whether they copy these in advance or not.