Writing as sculpture. I really like that image because it takes the pressure off of what most writers find the hardest: getting started. Sit down and start writing. Write anything. Write that you don’t know what to write. Write that you just wrote that you don’t know what to write.

If you sit there long enough and move your hands, eventually you’ll get something down on paper worth keeping. It might be an idea, a character, an image–maybe even a sentence or just a good word. Now you can chip away all of that other gobbledygook and develop that one good thing, just like a scupltor finding a figure in a block of marble.

Anyway, sculpture songs:

“(My Baby Does) Good Sculptures,” The Rezillos.

“Chip Away,” Jane’s Addiction.

“Chip Away the Stone,” Aerosmith.

“A Hundred Pounds of Clay,” Gene McDaniels.

“Piece of the Rock,” Mother’s Finest.

“Bend Me, Shape Me,” American Breed.

“Michael Angelo,” The 23rd Turnoff.

“Venus De Milo,” Miles Davis.

There you have it: Eight songs for the art of subtraction. What did I miss? I’m listening.