Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Chuck Wendig on Being a Happy Writer

Thanks to Tobias Buckell for linking to Chuck Wendig's post, 25 Ways to Be a Happy Writer, or at Least Happier. One of my favorite bits:

20. See Failure as an Instruction Manual

Failure is illuminating. It reveals every broken board beneath our feet, every crack in the wall, every pothole in the road. Do not shun failure. High-five it. Hug it. Engage in lusty pawing with it. Failure means you’re doing. Everybody fails before they succeed. Failure is how we learn. Failure is part of the grand tradition of figuring out how to be awesome.

Totally correct. About anything, really, but in particular anything having to do with the creative arts. It takes a lot of practice, a lot of experimentation, a lot of try-fail-try-fail-try-fail, and did I mention a lot of practice? to make it up the Creative Arts Mountain. If you can't learn from your mistakes, you'll never make it to the top of that mountain, and if you're afraid of making mistakes, you'll be so paralyzed you'll never make it past the foothills.

Read them all, noting that most of them are delightfully profane. :)

Angie

4 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

Someone asked me the other day what my most educational moment was. I said, whenever I've failed at something.

Angie said...

Charles -- exactly. [nod]

When I was in college, I participated a lot in class. I volunteered to answer the instructors' questions, and made comments, and there were times when my answer or comment was wrong. And I could see the students around me (who hardly ever said a word unless they were called on) all O_O while they watched me -- so they thought -- making a fool of myself. But every time I was wrong and the teacher corrected me, I learned something. I was paying money to learn stuff, so why not make the most of it? [wry smile] Too many people never get that.

Angie

Suzan Harden said...

Make a fool out of yourself in federal court, and watch fellow attorneys duck and cover as the judge chews you a new one. Lots o' fun!

Angie said...

Suzan -- LOL! Well, yes, I can easily imagine that there's a time an place. It's like the classic joke where you never want to hear your surgeon go, "Oop!" :D

Angie