So Here's the Point

I often sit with my pen in my hand and a piece of paper in front of me. I can sit there for hours sometimes without writing a word. Perhaps you've experienced this too.

Or, if you're a programmer, you've stared at an empty screen. Or, if you're a scientist, you've looked blankly at a rack of samples. Or, if you're in advertising, you've watched your product just sit on the desk and not inspire you at all. Or....well, you get the picture.

We're often paralysed in the act of creating something because we already know ahead of time that what we create will be awful. So why bother? Better to live with at least the sliver of hope that you might have talent, than to smash that hope to pieces by proving to yourself that you don't. Right?

Maybe not.

For a long time, I had a printout of this story above my bed. It's called Slight Rebellion Off Madison, and it was published by The New Yorker in 1946. It was written by J D Salinger, and was later edited into chapter 17 of Catcher in the Rye.



The story is not very long, and compared to Catcher, it's not very good. I kept it tacked really high up on the wall, and I've only read it a couple of times. I didn't stick it over my bed so that I could read it. It was there for inspiration.

I kept it on my wall to remind myself that the first version is not the version. It's just a starting point.

Somehow, since I've moved out of that bedroom, I've often forgotten this fact. I've avoided even picking up my pen or sitting down in front of any paper because I just hated to stare at the emptiness that could only be marred by my own imperfection.

So, I've started this blog. I want to remind myself, and perhaps a few others, that perfection is not a starting point.

I want to gather together examples of bad first drafts, and downright awful ideas, from all walks of life, and all avenues of creation. Not to mock them, but to celebrate them as the first step on the road to something great!