Failure is a word that normally strikes fear into most anyone who wants to succeed and that is ok. In writing success is not often achieved on the first go, it takes many attempts to get it right. Collin Brooke and Allison Carr both hit the nail on the head when explaining what failure means to writing in Failure Can Be an Important Part of Writing Development. Writing is not something that is easily attained minus a select gifted few, it is a muscle that must be exercised. When you work out the only way to build muscle is to push it to the failure point where it then will be rebuilt better, stronger. Writing is very similar in the ways that sometimes we must fail to see our short comings and realize that it is all a part of the growing process. Anne Lamott, a distinguished writer, believes that “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.” I think she is on to something here. Imagine you have been given a paper to write on a subject you are unfamiliar with, you may fear that your first attempt will not be very good, and that is ok. You should just get something on the paper to start, just get your thoughts on a page. Its ok if you think what you wrote is complete garbage, like Anne said you must start somewhere. The big problem with failure is that it is not naturally viewed as a tool to assist in bettering a piece of writing. When you think about it, the first writing that most anyone produces is pretty shitty some like Anne might even call it a “shitty first draft”. If we can begin to accept that maybe what we jotted down first is not our best work, but it will surely have pieces of information that will help you perfect your next revision. Its ok to fail in writing. It constantly has us examining our mistakes and learning from them so that our next revision will be much better than the last. So maybe take a risk the next time you decide to write it may pay off more than you know and remember even if its bad you can always make it better through revision. I like to think that through failure and reflection we can truly begin to master writing and understand our true potential
Just get something on the paper!
