Monday 30 May 2011

When We Should Settle

As any artist, of any discipline, will tell you that in order to really excel, you have to take the craft seriously. Pride in their work is what makes the greats great. And yet, there’s a group who still believe that because perfection can’t be reached, we should just accept it.

Why?

Why do we allow ourselves to settle for imperfection?

Learning writing is a long road. I set out long before I understood what it meant to become a professional. It’s good I did! If we understood the road before us before we had the passion for it, most of us would have given up.

After we have that passion, we need to take it seriously. We need to learn what it is that makes us the best we can be. That takes study and vision. We need to know we want to be the best we can be. We have to take the steps to get us there.

For writers, the editing and rewriting process is part and parcel of the task. Nothing goes without some form of tweaking. If you can rewrite it one hundred times and keep improving it, do it.

With that understood we have to remember: we’re business people, too. Eventually, we have to push the product. We have to give up and let it stand. At that point, and only then, we can settle for imperfection. We have to settle or we’ll drive ourselves crazy with the mistakes!

After that, though, we need to move on. We need to be better the next time.

We’re consumers, too, though. As consumers we shouldn’t settle either. We need to hold those we give our patronage to as high a standard as possible. Tell them where they can improve. We can encourage our craftsman to better heights merely by demanding they hold themselves to a higher standard. The adage is true. Nothing is ever perfect. That shouldn’t stop us from giving it our best.

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