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Transcript

No Such Thing as Perfect · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Rider Starter Kit, visit DailyRiderLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: As you make progress toward your writing goals, you will inevitably run into some roadblocks.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason is that life gets messy.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, after all, we get tired and sometimes we just want to quit and give up.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: But why do we feel like giving up?
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's an important question to ask ourselves.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: What is it about this whole process of creative work and writing that sometimes makes us want to just chuck everything and, you know, move to the Bahamas and forget this whole writing deal?
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think many times it comes down to unrealistic expectations.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: We get discouraged when the picture we have in our heads doesn't match the reality in front of us.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: We see the messiness right before us, and we assume that the great books we love, or any great work of art for that matter, started out as perfect, and we feel like, well, the mess that we're dealing with and trying to edit and write and create, we feel like this is so much more of a mess than this perfect piece of art that's been admired for years or for generations.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not really the case.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: For example, take the classic 1972 movie The Godfather.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: There's a scene in the later half of the movie where Sonny Corleone, played by James Kahn, Sonny Corleone, hunts down his brother-in-law Carlo because he beat up his wife, Connie.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now Connie is Sonny's sister, and Sonny is not only protective of Connie, but he's also a really, really bad hothead.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: So Sonny finds Carlo hanging out in the neighborhood street and they get into a fight naturally.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: He has Carlo up against a wall and he starts punching him.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: However, because of the camera angle, you can clearly see that James Con is not really hitting the actor playing Carlo.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, that's what you'd expect since this is a movie, but it's a flaw that is so obvious and has been so well known over the years that it makes the fight kind of comical because you don't really buy it, obviously, because the punches that James Conn is throwing are so far away from the actor playing Carlo that you're like, okay, this is this is actually kind of funny.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's not meant to be funny, but it kind of is.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Knowing that though, to me, does not detract from the Godfather's greatness.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it makes the film to me more endearing because it's a work of art that was made by humans who were on a really tight budget and a super tight production schedule.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, every work of art has flaws and mistakes.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, does this mean that we shouldn't strive for excellence?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, of course not.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: We should do everything that we can to make sure our writing flows well and that we're using proper grammar, punctuation, hiring editors, and so forth.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: But after we've done those things, there comes a point where we can no longer improve it.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: We've got to release what we've created out into the world and just move on to the next thing.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: As Scott Adams, the creator of the comic strip Dilbert, said, creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Art is knowing which ones to keep.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's good advice because we shouldn't get too hung up on the myth of perfectionism.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: You'll never be perfect, and there's no such thing as perfect writing.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And this is exactly what makes your writing so perfectly human.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Here's today's challenge.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: What piece of writing do you need to finish today?
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Get it done, then move on.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: You can perfect it later on, you can edit it later on, you can go back and change it later on, but just finish it, get it out there so people can enjoy it.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I want to give a very warm welcome to our brand new sponsor for the Daily Writer Podcast, Thumbprint Creative.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: You've probably heard the saying, don't judge a book by its cover.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And while that may be true in some areas of life, it's definitely not true when it comes to books, because people do judge the quality of a book by its cover design.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, the cover design is the very first thing that people notice about a book.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's why my graphic designer of choice is Christy Griffith, owner of Thumbprint Creative.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: I've worked with Christy for a long time, and she's designed covers and interior layout for my own books, my ghostwriting client books, as well as books by a lot of friends that I've sent her away over the years.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Christy works closely with you to design a layout that perfectly captures the theme and genre of your book.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: She's very, very good.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: She's super easy to work with, and her rates are very, very reasonable.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: I cannot give a higher recommendation to somebody than I would give to Christy Griffith from Thumbprint Creative.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're looking for a graphic designer or for somebody to do layout for your book, you don't need to look any further because Christy is the person you need to hire.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: You can go to her website, which is go thumbprint.com, to learn more.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's go thumbprint.com.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: I promise you you'll be very happy with the results.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Check it out, go thumbprint.com.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: And with that, I'll say thanks for listening, and I'll see you tomorrow.