The Shed Notebook: Anne Lamott and Making Messes

Saturday evening I had the pleasure of hearing Anne Lamott speak in Spokane. Since I read Bird by Bird in the early nineties, I have used Anne Lamott's books as inspiration for my writing, my faith, and my inner life.
She mentions a chapter in Bird by Bird and urged us to read or reread it. It is the chapter titled "Perfectionism".  Lamott reminds us " perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism."  Writing is not about perfectionism. Writing is about the process. It is getting the "butt in the chair", writing "shitty first drafts", and "making big scrawls and mistakes."Perfectionism can slow down the writing process, it can ruin your creativity, it can stop the flow.
People want to be writers. They have a story to tell.They want to publish a book. They want to be famous. Writing doesn't quite work in that way. It is not a step-by-step cookie cutter recipe. It is messy. It takes time and practice. It is one step forward, two back, two forward again.
" We need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here- and, by extension, what we're supposed to be writing. " Thank you Anne Lamott for that reminder. I am going to continue to scratch out notes, write drafts for my blog, write in journals, and write out loud. I am going to forget about perfectionism and make messes. That I can do.