“If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.” — Margaret Atwood
I suppose I was “spoiled” for perfection because I was a professional writer for my entire adult life. I didn’t have the option of perfection. I had a job to do, a book to produce, and a deadline to meet. I learned to write well, to self edit (because rarely did I have an editor), to get everything ready to go without doing oodles of overtime. This was important because I never was paid for overtime. Overtime meant I was using my personal time for work.
When you’re churning out 500 to 1000 pages every few months, you do your best and hope you’ll have time to go back for a good edit and some rewriting before it goes to press. If I worked very fast, I could create the extra time I needed and after a good edit and rewrite, it was always better. I rewrite posts too. They are always better. If I rewrite the same piece a third time, it’s even better.
No piece of writing is ever perfect. It can always be improved, but it will never be perfect. I’m not even sure if there is a perfect in the writing world — or for that matter, in any kind of art.
So, I’m good with good. Sometimes, I write a post good enough to feel I deserve a pat on the back, even if I’m doing the patting. Occasionally, I write something of which I’m proud. If no one reads it, I’m not shy. I’ll keep posting the piece until someone notices it.
I’m the same way with cooking, drawing, and photography. If I feel I’m making progress, I’m fine. This doesn’t mean I’m satisfied with the product. Making progress is good, but I usually feel there’s room for improvement because in the arts, there is always room for improvement.
I have had to accept the reality that many things I do — writing, drawing, cooking, photography — might fail. Sometimes, the cake falls, the photograph is fuzzy, and the piece you’re writing doesn’t quite come together. It can be a little off or really bad. Part of learning to do things well is knowing when you didn’t do well.
In art, it sometimes means tossing that piece. For photography it has meant not processing pictures that aren’t going to look the way I want them to look. This has been surprisingly hard for me. Sometimes, a bad photograph contains an image I love but which I can’t fix. As for cooking? It’s figuring out what went wrong and what I need to do to get it right. Writing? When editing and rewriting doesn’t bring a post up to snuff, the trash bin awaits.
Self-criticism isn’t bad unless you don’t know “good” when you see it or you begin to obsess over everything. Age has made me more easy-going about everything I do. Maybe the key is not being on a schedule and knowing I have plenty of time to get it right.
Or maybe it’s not being able remember anything for more than a minute.
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Categories: #Blogging, #Photography, Arts, Drawings
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I have never seen any mistakes in your posts. Even your drawings are great.
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The ability to write and proofread are two entirely separate functions. You can be a brilliant writer and never spot a typo or a great proofreader and be unable to write at all. My problem with proofreading my own work is that after a while, I see what I expect to see and not what is really there. And because many posts are full of typos, most of us simply read through them. We read what we mentally expect to see and don’t notice mistakes.
When do I notice typos? After the piece is published. Ouch!
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You’re right that we often ignore typos as there was this post on Facebook once where they had the first and last letter of the words correct and in between they were jumbled up. But I could read it.
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Our brains can read jumbled words. Scientists have run all kinds of tests and intelligent people — especially people who read a lot — can easily unjumble words. You brain just “knows” what the world ought to be. Most of us can also read upside down and sometimes, backwards. We don’t think about it. We can just do it. I learned to read upside down at interviews so I could see what notes they were writing. It was harder when it wasn’t printed, but I could still get most of it. It’s a useful tool for reporters and teachers, too.
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I never tried upside down. Very cool idea
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Try it. You probably can. It’s just built into your brain 😀
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I’ll give it a go. Thanks
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I am more than happy with good, too, Marilyn…
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I think in the world of arts and especially writing, good is the best you can do. I’m not sure there is perfection. If there was “perfect,” would that make the book better or would it be dull? So I aim for good because I know I can achieve it. If someone else thinks it’s perfect, I’m grateful, but in my heart, I know it could be better, even if just a little bit better 💕
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Yes, I settle for good, and grateful for it…
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For me, I think good is probably the best I can do at that time. I may be able to fix it later, but at least I do the best I can at the time and hopefully, it’s good enough. I never take writing casually. Not even blogs unless I’m just writing captions for pictures. But you know? I even edit them. I don’t think I can write without editing. It’s part of the process.
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I think it’s supposed to be. For me, editing is as natural as breathing…
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