Busy!

I have been following my resolutions — albeit offline.

I’ve been so busy that I haven’t updated in a while.

But I have 1) worked on my painting

2) worked on my fiction writing

3) done some crafty stuff that I’d been putting off for no good reason

and 4) traveled! I took a trip to Oregon. Portland was lovely, warm, and blooming. Here at home it’s beautiful, as always, but cold. I’d like to know what kind of community regulations Portland has to guide their housing renovations, because they had the most spectacular, sensitively rehabbed older homes. Lots of lovely Victorians, and some great examples of the sorts of Arts and Crafts homes that are particular to the West Coast.

The Problem with Perfectionism

The perfect is the enemy of the good. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t strive to do our best, but rather that to always expect perfection is to aim for the impossible. Good is possible. When you aim for “good,” or even “really good” or ”great,” you can get the job done, and exceed your expectations. When you expect perfection, you might give up before you’ve even begun. Or maybe you’ll just procrastinate until you have so little time left that you’re forced to lower your expectations. 

Perfectionism, in my case, has not hurt me in work or school. It manifests itself in my free time, in the form of unfinished paintings or craft projects. When I’m writing something for work, I can sit down and get it done with a minimum of fuss. But when I’m writing for pleasure, for myself, I compare my high expectations with my actual efforts and I despair of ever fulfilling them. Thus, my resolution to do things, to enjoy the process and not focus on the results.

My Resolution: I have a possible mantra

New Year’s resolutions: Do you have one? Mine is to start doing. Not to just think about doing stuff, but to actually do it. I think that this relates to most resolutions, and I’m hoping that I can find some support from my fellow resolution-makers. I’ve been looking for a mantra, and I have a possible candidate: Stop Fronting, Start Doing.

Yes, I have turned to Hip-Hop for my mantra. (As opposed to Zen Buddhism or Deepak Chopra.) But I think it works, because unlike “Stop Dreaming” or “Stop Thinking,” it is against something entirely negative. Fronting is faking something, and it involves projecting an false identity. What do you think? Do you have a mantra?

Any Mantra Suggestions? (for my new year’s resolution)

In an effort to nurture the more creative, active parts of myself, which are all too often crushed by the unrealistic expectations of perfectionism, I have designated this my Year of Doing. And I’m looking for a mantra to help encourage myself. Any suggestions?

The “Year of Doing” title is obviously inspired by hackneyed advice phrases like “Stop Planning, Start Doing,” and “Stop Dreaming, Start Living.” But does anyone really think that cessation of all dreaming and planning is helpful? “Stop using planning and dreaming to avoid actually doing anything, but rather use them to do something, of some sort,” is not exactly snappy. “Just Do It” would work, but I don’t have that kind of legal defense money.

Book Reviews – Feast of Love

Feast of Love, by Charles Baxter

This book nearly sat on my shelf unread, amongst the other paperbacks that my mother recommends. She drops them off in stacks, and I usually ignore them for awhile and then return them during a rare borrowed-book purge. (Note to friends: My apartment is a paperback black hole. Do not lend me treasured books. Actually, a black hole isn’t the greatest metaphor, because the paperbacks do actually re-emerge, albeit unpredictably. But I believe you take my point.)

I typically don’t read the books that my mother brings me, because they tend to fail my “no dead babies” standard – meaning that I don’t like unsubtle attempts at pathos and sentimentality, of which the “dead baby” plot device is an especially egregious example. Also, this book was made into a recently released movie, and thus had small pictures of the involved actors on the front cover, including Greg Kinnear. (They can’t all be “Little Miss Sunshine,” people.) But I took a chance on it during a novel drought, and I am glad glad glad.

Fiction writers, read this book, and marvel. Charles Baxter is a uniquely kind and gifted writer, with a rare respect for his characters. I did not think that a novel could simultaneously be so funny and so immensely humane. He brings together a disparate group of Ann Arbor residents and has them tell their stories to a mysterious fellow named, yes, “Charles Baxter.” But this is no meta-exercise – it’s an incredibly wise and entertaining meditation on love and its place in our lives.

Now, when I am trying to write, I think of this book and his characters and am a little bit discouraged, but mostly inspired. I almost missed out on this book – and I hope that you don’t.

How To Make a Living Writing, Part Two « Suddenly Christian

An informative post, for my fellow writers.

How To Make a Living Writing, Part Two « Suddenly Christian

First Writing Project of the New Year

I always intend to enter those itty-bitty Writer’s Digest contests. I read the prompt, I consider ideas, maybe I even jot those ideas down. Do I flesh out and submit these ideas? I think we all know the answer to this question.

Today, however, I have what I think is a promising entry that I hope to submit in, yes, two days. It’s about my recently deceased cat. I remind you that I am aiming for completion, and not perfection. Or quality.

My Resolution:

I hereby pledge, and solemnly swear, per my 2008 New Year’s Resolution, to write more. I will enter contests. I will type up my pages of scribbled notes. Perhaps there will be index cards involved.

Beautiful Things

The perfect is the enemy of the good. Do you suffer from untreated Perfectionism? Symptoms include procrastination, unfinished projects, and a damaged creative impulse. Ask yourself about a new treatment: GoodEnough-itrol. GoodEnough-itrol is a new, mantra-based solution that helps you stop crushing your efforts under the weight of your expectations. Side effects may include lame lyrics, poor poetry, saggy souffles, and putrid paintings.

Fellow perfectionists – isn’t it time we gave ourselves permission to create? Perfection isn’t a prerequisite for beauty or meaning. My resolution for 2008: start doing.