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Conquer Writer’s Block – Dare to Be Imperfect
By Deb Gallardo
One of the biggest causes of writer’s block is a kind of paralysis that often results from a subconscious fear of not being able to create something perfect. The truth is, perfection, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. I came across this 19th century poem, taken from an anthology of the day, that describes just such a paralysis afflicting writers 150 years ago.
Impression
Sir Edmund William Gosse (1849–1928)
IN these restrained and careful times
Our knowledge petrifies our rhymes;
Ah! for that reckless fire men had
When it was witty to be mad,
When wild conceits were piled in scores,
And lit by flaring metaphors,
When all was crazed and out of tune,—
Yet throbbed with music of the moon.
If we could dare to write as ill
As some whose voices haunt us still,
Even we, perchance, might call our own
Their deep enchanting undertone.
We are too diffident and nice,
Too learnéd and too over-wise,
Too much afraid of faults to be
The flutes of bold sincerity.
For, as this sweet life passes by,
We blink and nod with critic eye;
We ’ve no words rude enough to give
Its charm so frank and fugitive.
The green and scarlet of the Park,
The undulating streets at dark,
The brown smoke blown across the blue,
This colored city we walk through;—
The pallid faces full of pain,
The field-smell of the passing wain,
The laughter, longing, perfume, strife,
The daily spectacle of life;—
Ah! how shall this be given to rhyme,
By rhymesters of a knowing time?
Ah! for the age when verse was glad,
Being godlike, to be bad and mad.
EDMUND GOSSE. 1894.
The fact that writers struggled with this same malady a century and a half ago is actually good news. It’s not just you. You aren’t the first writer to be so afflicted, and you won’t be the last. You are not a hopeless writer. You are not a bad writer.
BUT…
you MAY be your own worst enemy by listening to the perfection critic sitting on your shoulder and whispering in your ear.
No writer wants to present sub-standard material. The problem occurs when we have a skewed view of what is “publishable quality.” I’m not suggesting you adopt the philosophy of so many internet writers who put anything out there saying, “Good enough.” That brings to mind the old phrase, “Close enough for government work.”
The process of creating a story is a highly individual endeavor. Nevertheless, it is a function of the right side of the brain.
By contrast, the process of editing, formatting and restructuring a story is (largely) a left brain function. Some creativity is necessary for this process to be successful, but it’s a different brain mode than writing.
Think of your right brain as a slightly (or very) untidy, free-spirited zone where anything goes, and your left brain as an efficient, no-nonsense housekeeper with the soul of a drill sergeant.
Okay, so that’s an over-simplification, but it does point out the stark contrast these two brain zones exhibit.
Create a rough draft in your right brain and do whatever is necessary to muzzle your inner critic. One of the easiest ways to do this is to set a timer for 10 minutes and just write like the wind. Don’t allow yourself to fix anything, not even a stray punctuation mark. Leave that to the drill sergeant editor for later.
If you find this hard to do, I wrote a review of a great website (opens in new window) that nags you if you stop typing for a given time period (it’s customizable). Pretty cool.
Here’s the main thing I want to leave you with: Think of your first attempt at any writing as your “sloppy copy.” This automatically gives you permission to be imperfect on this initial draft.
Nothing is set in stone. No one else needs to see this. That’s what word processing programs are for, in fact, to make editing more efficient and simpler. SpellCheck will catch a lot of errors. If you have the grammar checker turned on, it will nag you worse than your inner critic if you haven’t customized those settings. (I recommend you do that. My customization is to turn the blamed thing off!)
You have my permission to create any old sloppy way you wish. This should free you from that paralysis of fear. Then put your sloppy copy away for at least a day before reading it.
(For novel-length works, I recommend writing a whole chapter and putting that away, then beginning the next chapter, leaving off at a place where you will know where to begin the next time you sit down to write. Don’t forget the timer.)
After this cooling off time, you can let your left brain take over to make a second draft. You won’t achieve perfection here, either. Writing is a process. Take it one step at a time and before you know it, you’ll have something ready for an editor.
Related Posts
- Writer’s Block – Cures for Writer’s Block-itis
- Writer’s Block: Getting Back on Track
- Having Trouble Writing? Work on Yourself First
- Writer’s Block – Thinking Through It
- Creative Writing – - Another Blow for Writer’s Block
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