The Power of Imperfect Writing: Breaking the Fear of Bad Work
Today I embark on a new journey, and I encouarge you to come with me! I'm taking a page from Seth Godin's book and (attempting to) blog every day. I take my writing more seriously as time goes on. Yet, still I don't have a regular practice of putting out bad writing. Instead I either journal or pour my writing efforts into pieces that have gone round and round in my mind for so long that they're pretty much fully formed.
My friend told me about an experiment in which participants had to make one piece of art or several. Those allowed to create several pieces hesitated less in deciding what to concoct, while those only allowed to make one piece of art got caught up trying to make their work perfect. In the end, however, those who made several pieces were earned significantly higher points than those who only made one.
There are several reasons why I believe that those who had the opportunity to make more art received better scores. For starters, they were overthinking their pieces. Secondly, they were able to build upon their creations and learn from their previous mistakes. Lastly, and more importantly, is the absence of fear, a point that Seth Godin also brings up. Specifically, the absence of fearing making bad work.
Seth says that if you look at the English lexicon, the phrase “writer’s block” did not appear until there was a mass production of books. He proposes that instead of motivating people to write knowing that their work could reach larger audiences than ever before, may writers were “blocked” because they feared being bad.
His cure? It’s similar to the advice I gave a friend this weekend regarding reframing negative self-talk. Reframing is not guaranteed to “work.” But your negative self-talk is guaranteed to cause stress and dis-ease in your body. So the choice is yours! Similarly, Seth encourages us to write every day. We will write a lot of crap, that is for sure. But also, through the law of practice, we will also uncover some gems!
