But I would draw the entire table’s worth of stuff, just shrink the whole scene down to fit on the page, with plenty of white space around it. The teacher was always telling me I was very compressed.”
Like Pepper, I have no artistic ability, and like Pepper, I did take an elective art class in grad school in which my drawing style was described by the teacher as “compressed.” Interestingly, I think my writing style has the same tendency to be compressed. One of the pieces of advice that most changed my writing came from my thesis advisor David Treuer (whose books are extraordinary). David pointed out that my writing tended to be subdued, so I should aim for melodrama, and my natural restraint would balance it out. This encouragement to go bigger had a huge effect on my writing and the stories I felt capable of tackling.
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