Dayton's key philosophy on art is that it should always be used to say one thing. One idea. One important burning lesson that you want to teach someone. Having learned much about life through the filter of music, he equates writing to the relationship between melody, harmony and rhythm: The main idea of your story - your theme - should be like a strong melody and this is what you want to get stuck in the audience's head. This theme can be twisted, inverted, reversed, contrasted etc... but everything one does in a work of art is to deliver this one idea - in tact - to the audience. Harmony and Rhythm are important only in the fact that they work to support your melody. In writing, these are things like emotions, steaks, adding time constraints for tension, using descriptive details etc... A nice harmony is good in and of itself but it's not a strong piece of music. A good rhythm is nice as well, but it's not something that will get stuck in someone's head. Dayton, through his adventures, has found that this idea bleeds into every form of art and even into everyday life. In photography, the main goal is to get the viewer to look at one thing. The harmony and rhythm in photos comes by way of using framing, the rule of thirds, contrasting colors, layering the image etc... all of this just to make the subject - the melody - pop. In comedy, it's leading the audience to listen to your one punchline at the end of the joke. In business: all of the advertisements, sales promises, value stacking, branding etc... is all just to say, "I can do this for you." In all of his writing, Dayton uses this universal artistic concept to force his readers to learn what he wants them to learn. To see what he wants them to see. To feel what he wants them to feel. All of this, essentially, is to simply share the melodies that are stuck in his head with the people around him. Thanks for your time,Dayton O’DonnellRead more about this authorRead less about this author