The Matter of Reference Gathering Overflow
Research for a creative task kept expanding until the references were more finished than the project.
Scene 1.
There were two lines in the draft. Both were good. The person opened a new tab to find a reference that would support the direction the two lines were going. The tab search produced seven tabs. Each tab was a reference. None of the references replaced the two lines. The two lines remained the most finished part of the project.
Scene 2.
Reference Gathering Overflow makes the project feel more professional. The folder now had sections. The sections had titles. There was a folder called Influences, a folder called Anti-Influences, and a folder containing screenshots of things that were not quite right but felt adjacent to what might eventually be right.
The project had not moved since the two lines.
Scene 3.
Professionalism raises the standard for what the first real attempt is allowed to look like. The governing rule was stated once and then forgotten: the first imperfect draft may be delayed whenever reference gathering overflow offers a cleaner form of progress.
The references were cleaner. The references were finished. The references belonged to other people.
Scene 4.
At the forty-reference mark, a difficulty became visible. The draft would now have to justify the references. Each reference was an argument. Each argument was a position. The first draft would have to take positions consistent with forty gathered arguments.
The first draft was not ready to take forty positions. The first draft had two lines.
Scene 5.
More references were added. The references had fifty references for a draft with two lines. The governing rule produced its final finding: the first imperfect draft may be delayed whenever reference gathering overflow offers a cleaner form of progress.
The progress was clean. The project was fifty references and two lines.
No third line was written that day.