The problem with perfectionists, but by no means not the only one (Yes, I’m repeating a line from one of my other posts about perfectionism.), is that they become fixated upon their failures. Those failures may be real. They may be imagined. They may be small, such as forgetting to send an email or to make a phone call. They may be large, such as not caring for shipping arrangements for an upcoming trade show or not paying a bill on time. It doesn’t matter. In the mind of a perfectionist, a small failure is or becomes equal with a large failure.
failure
The Failure Factor
As a perfectionist, it’s easy for me to feel like a failure. Entertaining a single failure in my mind increases the likelihood that I will remember other failures and shortcomings and that I will obsess about them. Suddenly, I’m not a mere failure. I’m an abysmal one.
When You Make It
I’m not sure what it means to make it as a writer. Does it occur after publishing a certain number of books? Is it when one receives the Pulitzer? Is it when one has a specific number of stalk- ahem, fans?
Don’t Be Afraid To Write If You Don’t Write Right
Today’s post is courtesy of Michael Schechter.
I have the grammatical skills of the average chimpanzee. No, that’s not fair, I’m insulting chimps. It’s not something that comes naturally and when it comes to my writing, it’s not my highest priority. Regardless of this deficiency, I write. I write to become a slightly better chimp. I write because I have something I want to say. I write because I want to find my voice and by using it, I seek to make it stronger.
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What is the Point of Write Right?
The point of Write Right is not to club people with grammar rules. It is not to discourage writers who either are new to the writing life or who are struggling to write for one reason or another. It is not to criticize poor writing for the sake of criticizing poor writing.
Embrace Crappiness
Last night, I wrote a crappy poem.1 I then wrote a mediocre poem.* It probably was a crappy poem, too, but I decided to work with it. It was slightly better than the outright crappy one, and I needed to work on a poem. I needed to work through the crappiness. Why? I believe that embracing crappiness is a part of being a writer. It’s only in writing the crappy thing that I can move onto writing something better – if only by a few degrees.