Nobody's Perfekt

Now that I am getting back some of my energy and feeling a little more up to speed, I thought it best to provide some fresh content. More to the point, I wanted to bring up a writing trait worth complaining about. Or, rather, I should say, a not-writing trait worth complaining about. It has everything to do with the art of perfection, and what some people do to their writing in pursuit of this goal.

Let me preface this by saying there is nothing wrong with perfection. By definition, that statement is true. Pursuing it is also admirable, since such an endeavour forces us to become better writers. Now, having said all that, let me drop in the little caveat: We should all pursue perfect, but we should never expect to achieve it. This is where a lot of writers go off the rails.

I was reminded of this by a story told by a fellow member of the workshop I facilitate. He told a story of someone known as The Maker, who tried to create the perfect being, only to be disappointed each time, leading to an obsession that eventually brought about The Maker's own destruction. This is very much the writer's dilemma, and I have witnessed it in many people trying to write their stories. They know their story, they have it all in their heads, but translating it from neurons into words on a page becomes a challenge they did not expect. They get bogged down in details, trying to create the perfect page, the perfect paragraph, the perfect sentence. The frustration takes them away from the act of creation, and often that story never gets told in full. This is truly a tragedy.

Now, do I complain about these writers? Hardly - I try to push them to write first, to create before they edit, and to commit to the story before working on the grammar. The rest is up to them. Then there are writers who bring a rough draft of their story to the workshop - any workshop, really - they read their rough draft, then apologize for it being a rough draft. At that point, I let them know a few facts. First, I tell them there's no need to apologize because what they have done is created something. That's the win for any writer. Then I ask them what feels so rough about what they just read. This forces them to do a little self-critiquing: Was there word repetition? Passive voice? PoV problems? Usually their instincts are on par with exactly what I would've commented about. Sometimes they admit it's not the story they were hoping to tell, and we discuss that as well. But all of this comes with the insistence that there's no need to apologize.

So, what do I complain about with writers? My one complaint is when a writer wants to tell a story but decides in advance they don't have the skill, tanent, vocabulary, or whatever, and they never try to write it. That one gets me every time.