Do your best even if it’s shitty...

Here I am earlier this week: holding a (metaphorical) gun to myself, about to have my book published in exactly one month: I’m yelling at myself to delete it all, “It’s not ready you buffoon! It’s a hunk of junk if it came from that scrap heap you call a brain, delete it all, or I’ll fire!”.

Today I decided to ‘put the gun down’.

I realized that my book was never going to be at a point where it was ready. If I waited for that then It would remain in the drafts like a corpse in a coffin buried 10 feet under; eventually rotting away to nothingness.

So here’s a short blurb on why you should probably publish your book, or do lots of work: even if it’s shitty.

Doing shitty work can be good work

I won’t pretend that all shitty work is a part of eventual good work, but I will say that I think most people are under-imagining how many parts of their shitty work can be a compelling path to good work.

Here’s what I mean:

Your crap work, — the stuff you are ashamed of — much of it, sometimes all of it… is the waste you must shovel through to find small tiny bits of gold.

The top artists, musicians, and writers all have a large stomach for bad work. They have learned that there is plenty of it to be sorted through in order to get to their good work.

“You view it like a dirty tap. When you switch a dirty tap on, it’s gonna flow When you switch on the dirty tap, shit water is going to flow out for a substantial amount of time. Then clean water will start to flow out.

You’re going to write shit songs at the beginning. You are. My songs were terrible. But I got it out of me. The more you write, the better your songs will get.” — Ed Sheeran

Maybe my book really is shitty: honestly, I don’t think it is at all, I went through writing a lot of crappy words to get the 60,000 words I have in there now.

Regardless: I know I need to put it out there, to get feedback, and to be able to clear my dirty tap water at the very least.

I go through the shitty parts so I can get some clean tap water out. I publish my book now when I feel it could still be edited more. I do this because if I never get anything out, then how will I find the golden nuggets stuck behind the clog of wastewater in my pipe?

It’s time to put the gun down. It’s time to unclog the pipe.

. . .

My friend! (you) I want to thank you, for taking the time to read my writing. If you found this writing useful you may also very much enjoy my blog, my main hub, or my twitter where I post small blurbs and bits on all things creation and curiosity.