Animal husbandry brings to mind the difficulties involved in herding cats. Our veggie garden is meticulously planned and yet every year it looks as though everything is escaping. Cue picture of squash plants climbing up rose bushes and creeping across the path.
Are these the same as the creativity associated with wildness? I like the idea that even though we seem hemmed in there’s a wildness in all of us that encourages escape.
Yes! I think so. Your garden sounds idyllic. It's a tricky one, isn't it, because once you decide 'right lets have some wilderness here,' you are already organising it and controling it. I do like the analagy of planning and measuring meticulously knowing wilderness will get in round the edges at some point, but keeping your cultivating eye off it. That seems a good approach to writing, too.
I over manage my writing…ocd perfectionism…have close writer friend whose prose described as wild horses on MA we did together…two opposites…she is definitely a risk taker…but with a plan. Sometimes personality gets in the way…🤓
So difficult to get out of our own way. I like the idea of leaning into critiques -- "you think this is wild horses? I'll show you wild horses" -- the idea being that the giver of the criticism has accidentally pinpointed what makes the writing distinctive and valuable. When I was first sending out groups of poems to journals it would always be the poem I considered unpublishable (too light, silly, came too easily, etc.) that would be chosen. All this to say, is there a way of not trying to get over the perfectionism, or conquer it, in your writing, but let it all the way in??? Excuse the unsolicited suggestion, here, but I am fascinated by these kinds of quandaries and hugely relate!
It’s the lighter easier posts that find more traction on substack, too, I’m finding. There’s a lot of earnest overthinking to let go of… if only I could.
Oh yes, I know that one! And it's easy to think, 'if I work hard and suffer the writing will have value,' or 'I must contort myself into something I'm not for this writing to be acceptable,' when, in fact, the opposite might be true.
Love this! My husband deffo a beekeeper
Again you’ve made me think outside the box.
Animal husbandry brings to mind the difficulties involved in herding cats. Our veggie garden is meticulously planned and yet every year it looks as though everything is escaping. Cue picture of squash plants climbing up rose bushes and creeping across the path.
Are these the same as the creativity associated with wildness? I like the idea that even though we seem hemmed in there’s a wildness in all of us that encourages escape.
Yes! I think so. Your garden sounds idyllic. It's a tricky one, isn't it, because once you decide 'right lets have some wilderness here,' you are already organising it and controling it. I do like the analagy of planning and measuring meticulously knowing wilderness will get in round the edges at some point, but keeping your cultivating eye off it. That seems a good approach to writing, too.
I over manage my writing…ocd perfectionism…have close writer friend whose prose described as wild horses on MA we did together…two opposites…she is definitely a risk taker…but with a plan. Sometimes personality gets in the way…🤓
So difficult to get out of our own way. I like the idea of leaning into critiques -- "you think this is wild horses? I'll show you wild horses" -- the idea being that the giver of the criticism has accidentally pinpointed what makes the writing distinctive and valuable. When I was first sending out groups of poems to journals it would always be the poem I considered unpublishable (too light, silly, came too easily, etc.) that would be chosen. All this to say, is there a way of not trying to get over the perfectionism, or conquer it, in your writing, but let it all the way in??? Excuse the unsolicited suggestion, here, but I am fascinated by these kinds of quandaries and hugely relate!
It’s the lighter easier posts that find more traction on substack, too, I’m finding. There’s a lot of earnest overthinking to let go of… if only I could.
Oh yes, I know that one! And it's easy to think, 'if I work hard and suffer the writing will have value,' or 'I must contort myself into something I'm not for this writing to be acceptable,' when, in fact, the opposite might be true.