Jennifer Pickering

Sometimes when writing, and in life, it is easy to see the end goal and forget the steps before. Going to the gym to get stronger and being disappointed you couldn’t lift the heaviest weights on your first day. Starting a puzzle and getting sidetracked by that one missing edge piece. Little hurdles which remind us there is further to go and things can’t be “perfect” on the first attempt. Writing is often like that. Whether it is an article, or a poem, or a whole book you are trying to write, it is easy to see the end goal – the physical manifestation of your hard work, and easy to forget all the steps and edits it will take to get there.

So, let yourself start with the mediocre. Get over the first hurdle and get something on the page. You can be a perfectionist at the end as you are about to publish your words but, for now, you just need to begin. No one wakes up one day wishing for a body of an Olympian and achieves it just by walking into a gym, they have to work at it, day by day, chiseling away until they get to their perfection. (Well, maybe Olympians might wake up wanting an Olympian body and getting it there and then but lets not get too semantic!)

If you don’t begin, you’ll never end. Write like no one is reading and get somewhere further than you did when you first sat down. Once the words are there you can tweak and change them a thousand times if needed but then, at least your thoughts are out and, that book you’ll write “someday” is written (even if it’s not quite where you want it to be).

Mediocrity is a hard concept to allow into your life, wanting to do things at the bare bones level and not judging yourself for it can feel like you’ve let your standards slip. Like you’ve somehow undervalued yourself because you’ve not taken the time to do it properly but we all cut the occasional corner in life so why not apply that to your work too? I did a few laundry loads of washing before my parents were due to visit. I wanted to get the clothes neatly put away before they arrived but inevitably they text me saying they were 3 minutes away as I was folding the final lot. The clothes then ended up in the bottom of my wardrobe and, after they left, they ended up away. Had I not wanted to cut corners I could have put them away whilst they waited for me or not done the washing at all and push it all down the line but, by cutting a corner and accepting what will be will be, I still got to where I wanted. The point of this long winded metaphor? Life isn’t as linear as the perfect way and the imperfect way. It gives twists and turns and we have to roll with them in life and in writing. Waiting until you have the perfect words could leave you waiting forever. Write the imperfections and see what magic you might create from them. Some of my favourite poems have come from me not knowing where I wanted to end up when I started!

Bye for now!

Jen x