An attitude exists out there that suggests that if something isn’t perfect on the first try, then it must not be worthy. For the life of me, I can’t figure out where it comes from. Notoriously, Americans are a competitive lot. John Green wrote about this in his most recent release The Anthropocene Reviewed (2021) in relation to the innovator spirit and creating the “next big thing.” Which leads me to bridge that idea with American Psychologist, Carol Dweck’s exploration of the fixed mindset paradigm (2007) exploring both the dichotomy of that fixed mindset clinging to the either-or fallacy in contrast to the growth mindset pushing to recognize process and practice.
Writing, after all, is a practice.
Perhaps a fixed mindset is necessary for something like, oh, neurosurgery, and yet we still refer to doctor’s “practicing medicine.” Even to something as precise as brain surgery we extend the idea of a growth mindset. Why then would writer’s hamper their own forward progress with the added weight of perfection? I would venture a guess that many writer’s drift between the two mindsets as our inner committee and imposter syndromes go to war with our creative selves.
Anne Lamott wrote in Bird by Bird (2007)—and I’m paraphrasing here—that the voice of the perfectionist is the voice of the oppressor, and that allowing that voice a ruling seat at the committee table will keep us from finishing those shitty first drafts (because all of us write them). The truth is that writing is very, very messy until it isn’t.
Here’s a video I did for Quill and Cup writer’s group about the messy business of writing.
A four minutes tour about writing In the Echo of this Ghost Town… it’s a messy process until it isn’t.