Perfection Problem

The problem (at least for me) with writing is the editing process. Editing makes me want to pull out my hair, punch myself, and strangle something. And those are the good days.

The quickness of blogging is a huge leap out of my comfort zone. When I write things that are not blogs - I can literally spend hours of writing, rewriting, and rewriting the rewriting – again and again and again. Sometimes I will rewrite the rewrite over a period of days. And sometimes it’s just one paragraph. And even after that – after all that work – there’s the delete button. Truthfully, the way I just pictured it actually sounds simple compared to what actually happens. It’s more like this (kind of): write – read – read again – fix – read – rewrite – read – read previous paragraph – read again – write – reread (3 times) – fix – cut – read again – write, ect. – over and over and over. Ugh.

The discipline of blogging just makes me put what I’ve written out there – with little or no editing. (That’s not totally true – I’ve already reread and editing this piece at least 20 times.) I think – in some sense – this is why I need to blog. Writing and editing can be maddening.

I have to admit that on one level, though, I really like to write. It’s like putting together a puzzle – trying to find the right pieces to create a good picture. And when that picture is good – there’s a great sense of accomplishment. (The funny thing is that the accomplishment isn’t that there’s a good picture, but that I’ve finished with whatever I’ve been working on – and can move onto the next idea.)

For me, the process of editing is like finding out that most of your puzzle pieces don’t fit correctly – and your picture is really quite wrong – and ugly. Or at least incomplete. Quite infuriating! (And that’s just me editing myself – not handing it over to other people to just start that whole process over again – with someone else’s point of view. Grrr…)

Blogging makes me say – “Oh well…”

I think a lot of my blogs will seem quite ugly – and even wrong. But I’m gonna put them out there anyway. And I’m gonna say – “Oh well.” May this rid me of worrying too much about perfection…

Have a great day.

Jer