You Can Be Perfect or You Can Be Happy: A Writer’s Reminder

I spent a lot of time trying to be a specific type of writer. I think it all started in undergrad, when I tried to write a specific thing for a grade. That behavior haunted me for a long time. Then I said to myself, “ You can be perfect or you can be happy.”

If you’ve never taken a college-level creative writing class, that might not make sense to you. But let me explain.

College-level creative writing isn’t just writing your feelings or making up a story. It’s looking at the whole literary canon and finding your place within it. It’s sayin something with your work, and saying it in a way that is uniquely your style.

Think about the harshest criticism you ever received from a college professor. Then, apply that criticism to a story that is an extension of you. Because that’s what writing is.

It can make you feel like the criticism is being applied to you, not your work. And regardless of where the criticism falls, it still stings.

That’s why I needed to learn that you can be perfect or you can be happy.

You Can Be Perfect or You Can Be Happy

It’s a platitude to say that nobody’s perfect. We know it to be true. But it’s hard to remember that sometimes.