where to stop

one of those odd things to consider: just where to stop.
should be simple. it isn't.
where does the end come. when have you done enough and anymore is just too much.

there was a time when i thought bigger was better. i loved big books. they were a challenge to me. i loved longer movies: epics. i wanted albums to have more songs on them.

yet now the question is why so much? this might have started because i am getting older and have less of an attention span. it might be because of the internet and its encouraging of flitting from one place to another. i don't know.

i first noticed my questioning of when to stop at art galleries when i was looking at contemporary abstracts or sculpures. mostly when i am looking at such work the first question that pops to mind is how long did it take to do and the normal answer is: 'probably not very long'. then i start to wonder why did the artist stop at the point they did. what made them think it was done? did they get to their goal? did they lose interest? run out of time?

whenever you are creating something it is one of the questions you are going to have to ask yourself: where does it end?
are you going to turn what you thought was a 200 page novel into a several thousand page series? is that photo you are working on going to be photoshopped to within an inch of its life? are you going to add new scenes to that movie you making?

it is easy to add.
it is harder to stop at the right place, even harder to cut and edit something down.

try it.
next time you are doing something. stop. look at it. think about it and wonder could you do more with less.
i think you might surprise yourself.

don't worry there will come a time when i will be saying add everything in as well as the kitchen sink.

like i said there is no right way. there is no wrong way. there is just your way.