op!

This is just a small thing, but I'd like to say it. 

I rather dislike the phrase; "Writers/artists are like Magpies". Not because I dislike the bird, it's a perfectly fine animal in and of itself, simply... the phrase. Let me first define what a magpie is known for, taking shiny things it likes and collecting them. The phrase, I think, is basically saying we take bits and pieces of stories we like and sew them together to create a story of our own. Mmm.

That's... not quite what we (WHAT I) do. If you actually use the method of taking what you like and sewing it all together, it, uh, doesn't work that well AT ALL. What we REALLY do is take an idea that we like, and change it to suit our needs. We often change it so much that it's not someone else's idea anymore, it's ours! We take something we like and make it our own. How about a different metaphor, to make it clearer. It comes in two flavours.

One, all our stories are wet clay sculptures. We all have stories, whether it be the story of our life, or a novel or poem or drawing we're making, we're all busy making things. Humans love to create. So, let's say you look over to a Professional sculptor's (Or maybe your friends'!) sculpture, and see something you like. Maybe the way they make that talon curved to an almost-perfect half-circle. Maybe how the wolf's snarl stands out. Whatever it is, you may take a small piece of it, either literally take it, or maybe emulate a bit of it in your own sculpture. As you mold it in, you realise that, yes, there are some things you don't like about it. That snarl is a bit too evil-looking. You'd rather it, mmm, more defensive, frighhtened. So you improve upon the things you like, and change the things you don't. Slowly, it becomes part of the whole - and often enriches it, maybe making you realize what you want the sculpture to really look like. Or maybe you look over at your neighbor's sculpture, and see that they're using a cool colour. You take a bit of it (With the owner's permission, of course) and rub it into your sculpture. Slowly, the colors combine and mix together and the end result is a completely different colour from what you started with - and your neighbor's clay. Combined, mixed together, it becomes something new and interesting. So yeah. That's the clay metaphor.

The second, is thus. How about a tapestry for this? You see a lovely dark blue, shimmering thread in the form of a fearsome dragon, attacking the knight in this other person's tapestry. You love the colour - so snip off a bit of it for yourself (or perhaps select the same - or similar - colour from the ball of yarn across from you). But this time you weave it into a panther, combining dark, dark black threads as well. You take the same thing and use it for a different purpose.

So yeah, those are different metaphors for what I think writers and artists actually do in the so-called Magpie Process. Yeah. That's 'bout it. Do you guys have a different way of saying it? Admin? Do you have another metaphor for us? If not, that's fine. If so, that would be great!