Perfection (Or How Badly I Suck at it)

"Perfect is the opposite of done"

These words haunt me.
They come from a delightful Netherlander who I am falling madly in love with on Kickstarter.
I supported her campaign and get fairly regular updates.
In her, ever so slightly fragmented English, she attributes this adage to her special friend and apologizes for not getting her work done on time because she wanted it to be "perfect."

It actually comes from an older saying:

le mieux est l'ennemi du bien.

Meaning:

the best is the enemy of good

Shakespeare says:

Were it not sinful then, striving to mend,/ To mar the subject that before was well

I prefer my friend in the Netherlands:

Perfect is the opposite of done.

There is something beautifully pragmatic about this idea.
If you are seeking perfection, then it is a never ending process.
Perfect is the enemy of good doesn't quite land for me.
Because what I have witnessed is far more that in striving to achieve perfection in any of my goals, I end up unfinished.

I  have been writing a novel.
Just one.
For decades.
It is one of my oldest stories.
I had others, but at some point in my life, I decided that this one was it.
This was going to be my story.
The way Tolkien had Middle Earth, this would be my Lord of the Rings.
It had all the right notes: high fantasy, apocalyptic stakes, formulaic everything.
There was one problem: I wanted it to be perfect.
So I wrote and wrote and wrote and stopped.
Because it was crap.
Because it was terrible.
Because I wasn't spewing Elvish all over the page, instead it was me and mine and nobody else's.
Because while I could criticize every other fantasy author out there (and I will: Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time cannot, should not be published and if you haven't read it, please don't buy them, but find them and read them and burn them as I so badly wish to do), so long as no one was criticizing my work, I could churn away in obscurity.
Eventually, even that proved too much and I stopped altogether.
Because one day, the critic in my head won out.
I listened to the deep, dark voice that told me I wasn't good enough that see? No one heard about me or read my work and therefore, I couldn't.
That I would never have another story so long as I lived so this one had better be god damn perfect.
And since it wasn't perfect, I should just stop altogether.
And so I did.
What a miserable wretch I became.

SO to prove to myself and my audience that I am not a one trick pony, that I am no longer chasing perfection: I am participating in NaNoWriMo this year.
For those not in the know: NaNoWriMo is short of National Novel Writer's Month.
It is an annual celebration of all the writers out there working together to churn out something; that story that has been percolating for years, or just to prove that anyone is a writer.
And what I hear continually is anyone can do it.

"So easy even a caveman can do it."

-AJ Downey, Author 

 But, the thing is, I am not working on my one novel.
Oh no, I am working on another novel.
A completely different story that I dreamed up the day of Nov. 1 (when NaNoWriMo begins).
Why did I do this?
Have I finally given up on my first novel, my first love?
No. Not at all.
But, I have to relearn how to do this on a project that is not so bogged down in emotional turmoil.

"9/10 of what you write is crap. So cut that down to the good bits and that is your start."

-Random Substitute English Teacher I had in High School

Do you know what I learned from that?
I have to produce ten times the amount of content necessary for a book.
And then shred it to pieces, which, to be honest, is actually not far off the mark.
Most of these writers just keep writing, producing 5-10,000 words in a sitting.
Why do they do this? Partially volume; they have to produce, but also, because it takes that much to get to the good.

So we start with NaNoWriMo.
We start fresh.
With a new idea.
A new start.
A new novel.
Always keeping in mind that perfect is the opposite of good.
Trying to make something perfect will often put off the art.
Sometimes terminally.
Another of my favorite quotes:

"A painting is never finished-it just stops in interesting places."

Paul Gardner

That for me is the quintessence of art.
It is never done.
It is never complete.
It only stops at interesting places.
Whatever you find interesting for you and your audience.
So go out. Write a book. Paint a portrait. Do art.
Stop when it is interesting.
And keep doing it.

To end with, here is one of my favorite things in the universe:
This is called and Enso

It is a form of spiritual practice
Now, for anyone who has taught using Venn Diagrams

You know how impossible it is to draw a circle.
So calligraphers in Japan picked up the practice.
So they draw these beautiful, pristine circles.
But, they are never closed.
These circles are considered perfect in their imperfection.
Now, I read a lot into this and I am sure there is a whole tradition I am not aware of.
But, in regards to art and this article, there is nothing better to symbolize my point.
Perfection lies not in completeness, but in incompleteness.
So get it done by letting it alone.