In fact, in response to my facebook launch party invitation, a few kind souls pointed out the mistakes in the Chinese character for "Zen" that I used as the cover image of my e-book and featured in last week's blog post.
Zen
Not-so-perfect Zen
I knew that image wasn't perfect. And I could have used stock imagery, or paid an expert to do it for me.
But I wanted this endeavor to be personal, messier, and to feel more expressive and artistic... So I did them myself. I had a friend write the characters out properly for me in my journal, and then I spent a few wonderful afternoons trying to capture the spirit of each symbol with ink, brush, and the thinnest of rice paper.
Now I knew my kanji characters were possibly cringe-producing-kindergarten-level efforts for a native speaker of Chinese, but I chose to accept that.
Could I have studied Chinese calligraphy for years to perfect my brush strokes and the alignment and form of each character? I suppose, but to what purpose? I might have looked more accomplished and the art would have been more polished, but it would have delayed my e-book and this blog launch by years.
And I felt (and feel) that I have so much to share about blogging that people could forgive the imperfections and go with the overall spirit and beauty of the big idea: Blogging can be Zen.
In the math equation in my mind, it was better to be imperfect.
Now I'm not saying to post stuff you haven't given thought to, or to tweet when angry, (as Social Media Guru Jenn Bailey famously says, "Trying to get something off the internet is like trying to get pee out of a swimming pool.") but the way I see it, we can get frozen into doing nothing because we're afraid of it not being perfect. And it's better to do something good than hold out forever to do one thing without flaws.
Many authors say that when they read their published books, they find things they would still change. At some point they had to let go and put their story out into the world.
Same with blogging.
Get some stuff out into the world.
It doesn't have to be perfect. You don't have to be perfect.
I know. Because I'm not.
And you know what? It's okay.
Namaste,
Lee
ps - my thanks to Julie Sullivan in particular for keeping it real, and whose critique inspired this post!
Yeah, I hear you, but it's SOOOOOOOOOOO hard for us type A personalities. I have so many imperfect drafts waiting to be released, but they aren't ready yet (at least that's what I tell myself).
ReplyDeletePerhaps now is the time to let them go.
Thanks for the wise advice.
I've been trying to set a time limit for posts. What I get done in a set period of time is what I end up posting. Otherwise, it is easy to get sucked into the write and rewrite circle and it just takes up way too much of my precious time. Yes, I want my post to be perfect but at the same time, I also want to be spending more time with my family and kids. It's all about balance.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Easier said then done, though! One of the reasons I blog so infrequently is that it takes me an hour or more to write a blog post. Maybe I could cut that down if I wasn't so concerned about getting it exactly right.
ReplyDeleteMy posts are so far from perfect. I proofread and proofread and the day after I publish I find many typos and missing words. And then if I ever go back and read a post months later, I still find typos. I'm a mess. But I have several blogs and I'm going fast and that's the nature of the beast.
ReplyDeleteOff topic: I don't use e-readers but if you had a way to subscribe by email, I would.
I apologize but there seems to be a problem with comments today on blogger. I will see if I can manually add the comments received.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your patience,
Namaste,
Lee
Brimful Curiosities has left a new comment on your post "How to deal with the urge to make your blog posts ...":
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to set a time limit for posts. What I get done in a set period of time is what I end up posting. Otherwise, it is easy to get sucked into the write and rewrite circle and it just takes up way too much of my precious time. Yes, I want my post to be perfect but at the same time, I also want to be spending more time with my family and kids. It's all about balance.
Sheila Ruth has left a new comment on your post "How to deal with the urge to make your blog posts ...":
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Easier said then done, though! One of the reasons I blog so infrequently is that it takes me an hour or more to write a blog post. Maybe I could cut that down if I wasn't so concerned about getting it exactly right.
sally apokedak has left a new comment on your post "How to deal with the urge to make your blog posts ...":
ReplyDeleteMy posts are so far from perfect. I proofread and proofread and the day after I publish I find many typos and missing words. And then if I ever go back and read a post months later, I still find typos. I'm a mess. But I have several blogs and I'm going fast and that's the nature of the beast.
Off topic: I don't use e-readers but if you had a way to subscribe by email, I would.
Thanks all for your comments!
ReplyDeleteAnd Sally, I'll look into the e-mail subscription option.
Namaste,
Lee
Posts are never finished, only abandoned. (parody of Paul Valéry)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lee, for such an encouraging post!
Laura
all things poetry
Good advice, Lee! My biggest takeaway from that kidlit con was to "blog every day" - important, but exhausting. To quote my critique group, "Adequate writing rocks!"
ReplyDeleteYes! Don't let perfect be the enemy of good! That's my motto. And I do give myself permission to go back and correct things if I see fit.
ReplyDeleteI'm totally there with Sheila--it takes me so long to draft a post that I'm usually intimidated out of starting in the first place, or can't justify the time, or...etc., etc. And then it turns into a vicious cycle because all the stuff I meant to blog about accumulates, and the potential as-yet-unwritten post gets longer and longer...
ReplyDeleteEach Chinese character inspires balance and harmony. I’m not asking for perfection, but your Zen character is soooo imbalanced that I can't get over its affront to the beauty of the character. It stops me from feeling the peace and harmony in what you teach. Sorry!
ReplyDeleteEchoing others here....I don't blog all that much lately because it takes so much time away from writing books. But...most of that time is in the revisions, the dithering, the eventual deciding that no one cares about whatever the topic is but me anyway, and the revelation that much else had been written about it--and BETTER written..... I, too, have a few dozen "drafts" that were fun to write but seemed unworthy of bloglification, not perfect enough. ((Not that my blog probably looks or seems very polished, but I feel compelled to try and it often paralyses me.)) My twitter novel is an experiment in letting the writing by-pass the internal editor and it has transformed my approach to novel writing in general...and amazed me at every turn. Perhaps my blog can relax enough to be more frequent, at least, and maybe more entertaining. Thanks, Lee!!
ReplyDeleteA wonderful post, Lee, and on a topic close to my heart. The tendency when we're not "perfect" is to let the negative self-talk begin to flow, and then the downward spiral can start...If the expectation is to be human, we have much less reason to badmouth ourselves, don't you think?
ReplyDelete