On Embracing Good Enough - Tumblr Posts

You don't have to live up to society's standards and expectations for productivity and achievements for your contributions to be valuable

I LOVE being alive so I can be mediocre at SO many different hobbies

Whatever you're working on right now -- writing, code, art, whatever: don't try to make it perfect, or even good, on the first pass. Just make it exist first.

Y'all it is true that perfectionism kills art. Like since I have tried my best to not be so hard on my writing and not stress over it as much, I feel like storylines are flowing easier? And I somehow make less typos. Like the recent fic I wrote, Smoke Signals, i wasnt stressing much while writing and was trying to just go with the flow and when I went back to edit there were ZERO typos! Like none! I was baffled because I usually have lots of weird ones and I'll mess up sentence phrasing and stuff but it was so seamless. I play guitar and sing too and I find that when I stress less and let go of expectations, the lyrics and chords come easier. It's crazy how your art improves when you just let go!

Lessons I need to learn: You can't control the results, but you can control your expectations. It's fun to dream about success, however you define it, but there's never a guarantee. Instead of getting disappointed when things don't go the way you want, just focus on the thing itself you're working on. Lose yourself in the process of creating, living. Let go of any desire to please anyone but yourself. Embrace the fact you don't know what will happen, and trust you'll be able to overcome anything that comes your way.

I dunno if this is relevant to anyone else but if you're reading this, and nobody has told you this today, I'm proud of you.

better to half ass something than to never ass it

If you want to write a dumb little story with a dumb little plot and ridiculously silly characters. No one's stopping you. Genuinely, no one should be allowed to stop you. Write that dumb story with your whole heart and don't hold back.

I don’t know who might need to hear this announcement in this Virtual Chili’s tonight, but:

The goal of your first draft isn’t to make the story GOOD.

It’s to get the story TOLD.

“Our culture suffers from terminal brainworms when it comes to artistic expression. We are under the impression that art is something ‘special people’ do, and to do it well makes you a genius and to do it poorly is embarrassing. This sectioning-off of ‘the art world, for artists,’ from regular life and regular people is completely artificial and it is bad for the soul of your society.

You see, for most of history and in current cultures that do not have this psychological disorder, you do not sing because you’re a singer, you sing because you’re a person—it’s fucking singing! Religious institutions are one of the last places that we still understand that singing is an innately human participatory social act, not the exclusive domain of fuckin’…Ariana Grande.

The result of removing this stigma and arbitrary qualification required to do something as simple as draw or dance isn’t just less self-hatred, less insecurity, less anxiety, better community, better connection to your body, more holistic communion with others and the world around you, and simple indulgence in your fundamental humanity—it also results in categorically better artists.”

CJ the X, 7 Deadly Art Sins

let's be messy and imperfect and wonderful

[ID: marker art of a maned wolf coloured in deep oranges and reds beside messy handwritten text that reads "it doesn't have to be perfect and neither do you." The background is white, and the artist's signature reads @ watercolourcritters. End ID.]

Instagram | Etsy

friendly reminder that there are no minimum requirements you have to meet before you can write and post fanfic

you don’t need to be perfect in the language

you don’t need to have spectacular grammar and spelling and punctuation

you don’t need to have an intricate plot with subplots and red herrings

you don’t need to write a minimum number of words

you don’t need to be a “name” in the fandom

you don’t need to be caught up with every piece of canon content out there

you don’t need to be a superfan or know everything about every character

all you need is an idea and a willingness to write it down. the rest will come in time ❤

let go of the idea that you have to be the best or do the most to be worth something.

everybody remember making art is just a thing humans do. You don't have to sing well at karaoke night, you just have to have fun. You don't have to draw well, you just have to get your feelings onto paper. You don't have to write the most beautiful poetry, you just have to be honest. It's enough <2

Hi, kids,

Remember it's okay to not want to do your hobby as a job. It's okay to not want to sell the things that you make. It's okay if you want to make art without taking commissions.

It's fine to completely lose enjoyment in something if you're doing it for money. It's fine to say, "I don't like doing this when I have to do it," and to just never do it.

You don't need to make your hobbies pay for themselves. You don't need to turn professional or semi-professional. You can love the freedom of starting something when you want, working on it when you want, and finishing it (or not finishing it) when you want. If you find that taking that away makes you not love the thing, that's just a lesson that you've learned. It's not a failing. It doesn't mean you're not dedicated to your art or your craft. It doesn't mean you're not doing it right.

Not everything needs to be a business. Not everything needs to have financial worth.

While we're at it, you don't need to be good at a hobby to want to do it. You don't need to have a goal of improving. If you get a guitar and you love playing it, but never get beyond cowboy chords and 4-chord songs, you're still valid. You don't have to be the best in the world to have it have worth. Your grandma's chicken enchilada recipe isn't going to rank in the top 100 enchiladas ever, but you still love them and enjoy them and they taste great. Maybe your doll faceup isn't going to look like a youtube tutorial's did, but if you liked making it, that doesn't matter.

But it's also totally fine to do things just for the response you get from other people. If you're only updating that fic because you have nine dedicated readers who want to know how it ends, that doesn't mean you're not dedicated to the story.

"This is just something I like doing," is enough. It doesn't need to be a job, or something you're good at, or a labor of love, or an otherworldly calling from a holy being. You can just make things. You can just do things. It's okay.

“On first drafts: It is completely raw, the sort of thing I feel free to do with the door shut — it’s the story undressed, standing up in nothing but its socks and undershorts.”

— Stephen King

i don't know who needs to hear this, but 'perfect' writing is a trap. all writing is subjective. what we create today, we may see as flawed tomorrow. what we see as flawed today, we may see as perfect tomorrow.

writing is the act of transmuting the human experience through words. and the human experience? it's a messy, chaotic thing filled with rough edges and uneven lines and mistakes and failures. you can erase all of that. you can. but then you're left with something sterile and artificial. you've effectively squeezed the soul out of your work, and i can think of nothing less appealing.

this isn't to say don't edit your work. please do. but keep it within reason, and make sure you're moving forward and not backward. momentum is key.

don't sit on an idea for three decades waiting for that dance with inspiration, or that dynamite first line, or that eureka plot twist, or the words to flow like magic from your fingertips. because it won't happen. and if it does, it'll strike like lightning and disappear twice as fast. the only surefire way to finish a story is to start.

so write. for the love of god, just write.

along the way, things will fall in line. i promise. and if they don't? then they already have. the magic of art is that everything we create is a snapshot of who we are at the time of creation. it's like a time capsule of human experience, and there's a beauty in that authenticity-- in the mistakes we make and the wrong turns we take. don't run from them. embrace them.

let their lessons flow through you and channel them into something tangible. if it's hard, then start with one word and keep going. don't erase it. don't start over. don't let yourself believe your story isn't worth telling because if you don't tell it, then no one else will. and that'd be a damn shame.

so one word a day. one sentence a week.

whatever it takes.

it might be tough letting go of the idea of perfect. silencing your inner editor. your inner critic. it might be tough realizing that your story will never meet your standards, not completely, but it won't be half as tough as looking back and wondering where all the days, weeks, and years went; that in the pursuit of perfection, you forgot to ever write a story at all.

so leave perfect behind. readers don't want it. why would they? they can't possibly relate to perfect-- none of us can.

instead, give readers a window to your imagination, stormclouds and all. you'll be surprised by how many stick around for the rain, how many relish the sound of your thunder, and how many cherish the worlds that only you could bring to life.

Thinking about betareading/proofreading etc and how difficult it is to receive criticism, even when given kindly and constructively. The knee jerk reaction of upset at anything being wrong at all.

Something important to remember regarding that is, just because something can be better doesn't mean it's not good

You know. Reading is important. Because I'm like always trying to make every line I write this groundbreaking mindfucking art but like. A book is 90% just saying what happened. "I hugged him around the waist." "The chair was brown and overstuffed." "I woke up alone." Etc etc. Like normal ass lines. I just keep comparing my boring, necessary to set a scene lines, with famous authors' absolute best lines and like.... every line doesn't have to shatter the earth. Sometimes someone just sits in a chair and the lines that wreck you come later, one at a time, here and there. It's alright.

hey I went to Bad At It island and everyone you know was there. yeah turns out you just see the version of them they put forwards in order to not disappoint and in actuality everyone is just trying their best which doesn't always mean succeeding. yeah you were there as well but it's ok because you're surrounded by your friends and loved ones and if you take a moment you'll realise we are all flawed by nature but we are all full of love for one another and that matters more than any skill or success or achievement.