Friday, October 30, 2009

Dare to Suck

[I wrote this post for my writing students on a separate blog, but the same principles apply to other endeavors--like photography and fashion--so I thought I'd repost it here with an addendum.]

One of the many challenges of writing is learning to let yourself write badly. This doesn't mean that you should write badly and leave it that way; it doesn't mean that writing badly should be a goal in itself. It does, however, mean that there is a stage in any writing project where it is okay to just write without worrying about it being perfect or even good.

For many writers, this is really hard. You may feel like you have to start from nothing, from just the wisp of an idea in your head, and somehow leap from that to a polished essay that you can turn in (and hopefully get a good grade on). Or you may feel like you should be fixing things as you write your first draft and making sure to organize everything neatly when it first hits the page; you may be planning to turn this draft in and therefore are trying to do everything at once.

But a leap from nothing to something is not the most effective way to write. In order to wind up with the desired final product (a polished, well-written essay), you have to start with something less than polished and well-written: the rough draft.

It is at this stage that it is okay to write without worrying about how well you're writing. It's okay to suck. All you need to do at this stage is get your ideas down. You will have time (because you have made time by starting before the night before it's due) to fix things. My early drafts are fragmentary and repetitive. I use words that I know won't really work in a final draft just to fill the space so I can keep going. I'll come back and change them out later. I insert reminders like [examples] or [transition] to tell myself that this is a place that will require a specific kind of work, but I don't try to do that work immediately. I'll come back and write those bits later. I ask myself questions and argue with myself. I will make decisions and smooth those inconsistencies out later. This process is vital to my writing, no matter how ugly it looks; it gives me a chance to record my ideas, to see where they already look kind of good and where they don't, and to build a foundation for the stages that will come later (rereading, reorganizing, rewriting).

The best ideas and writing don't just appear fully fledged, after all, but require development. And the people who are most skilled at whatever they choose to do (not just writing, but art, sports, etc.) got that way by working through not knowing what to do, not being able to do it well, and, sometimes, just generally sucking. So if your writing is great to start with (or if you think it's great to start with), where is there to go? What is there to learn? You may find, if this is the case, that you aren't really challenging yourself, that you aren't really growing as a thinker and writer, and that your work will suffer as a result.

So dare to suck. Dare to write what you really think--even if it's confusing. Dare to write badly and chaotically. The beginning is for getting ideas out of your head and down on paper in some form. It isn't for great writing. That comes later.

Dare to Suck

Fashion and photography have worked the same way for me. I try things and they may not work. I take note and try something different next time. I have lots of old outfit pictures that I'm not terribly proud of but that are a necessary part of my fashion development. I look back at the early pictures I took and posted on flickr, even the early stages of my Project 365, which was just over a year ago, and I see how much I have grown as a photographer. A big part of that growth is wrapped up in not just doing what I'm already comfortable with but trying new things at which I might suck.

I am, therefore, a huge proponent of daring to suck. It can be scary to try something that might not work, but there's really no other way to learn.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Winspear Opening

Cory and I went downtown a couple of weeks ago to check out the new Winspear Opera House and to see, as part of the opening celebration, a free (!) performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jaap van Zweden. It was a great performance, van Zweden is really fun to watch direct, and the new opera house looks pretty darn cool. Plus, it was free!

I took a couple of rolls of film on my Holga over the course of the day.

DiagonalWinspear LightsCoryStatue & SkyscrapersI posted a few more on my flickr page but these are my favorites.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Zeiss Ikon

I just bought a vintage medium format camera (a Zeiss Ikon Nettar 517/16, to be precise) and am superexcited about learning how to use it.

*fingers crossed that it works as well as described*



Zeiss Ikon., originally uploaded by brian...

Monday, October 19, 2009

Project 365 - September 2009

I'm finally officially finished with Project 365! It's been a couple of weeks since I finished taking photos daily and although it's nice to have a break from feeling pressure to keep up with the project, I miss having a regular photography habit and plan to start another (less intensive) project in a few weeks. I'm thinking that I'll probably do a 52 Weeks-type project starting the week after Cory and I get married. In fact, I'll probably do two projects, one with digital and one with film.

But for now, here's my last month of Project 365 photos, presented all together. Woo!

Project 365 - September 2009

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Day Three Hundred and Sixty-Five: Pyramid

Pyramid:  September 30, 2009
Posted late, but I'm done! Fortuitously, Cory and I went to the Meyerson in downtown Dallas on my last day of the project to see Ben Folds play with the symphony, so I got to take lots of great pictures of the concert hall and surrounding area. This is a corner of the Meyerson against the late afternoon sky.

Here are a few other of my favorite shots (all of them are here in my Meyerson set):

StripesHReflectedBlack & RedVeeThe Eye

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Holga at the State Fair

I took my Holga camera to the state fair and shot my first roll ever on it there. I like a couple of the pictures quite a bit, but I can already see ways that I can improve future rolls.

These are my favorites of the day's shots:

RedFlyingTwo-HeadedI uploaded the whole roll to flickr (as evidence, I suppose?) even though I don't like all the shots.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Day Three Hundred and Sixty-Four: Numbers

Numbers:  September 29, 2009
“Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare.”
~Rene Descartes

Day Three Hundred and Sixty-Three: Urban Jungle

I took Sophie out for a front yard walk and took some pictures of the plants in planters while she laid around on the sidewalk.

Urban Jungle:  September 28, 2009

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Day Three Hundred and Sixty-Two: Pretty Sophie

This is my last kitty photo of my project 365. Both Sophie and Gracie made lovely models over the course of the year and saved me from several days of otherwise uninspired photography. Hooray for kitties!

Pretty Sophie:  September 27, 2009

Day Three Hundred and Sixty-One: Curtains

Curtains:  September 26, 2009
“Blow the dust off the clock. Your watches are behind the times. Throw open the heavy curtains which are so dear to you -- you do not even suspect that the day has already dawned outside.”
~Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Day Three Hundred and Sixty: Visitor

Visitor:  September 25, 2009
A lizard climbed inside the back doors, between the screen door and the wood and glass door and just hung out for a while. He was totally cool with my taking pictures, even looked at me, but when I picked up my kitty to show her, he saw her, freaked out, and ran away.

Silhouette

Monday, October 5, 2009

Day Three Hundred and Fifty-Nine: Paper

Paper:  September 24, 2009
A detail shot of one of my stacks of books to read.

Pages

Day Three Hundred and Fifty-Eight: Grass

Grass:  September 23, 2009
“Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.”
~Zen Proverb

Day Three Hundred and Fifty-Seven: Painting

Painting:  September 22, 2009
This is a macro shot of part of a painting that was painted by my great-aunt (I think). I grew up with it. It's an old-fashioned realist painting of magnolias and doesn't really fit in with my style overall, but I have a sentimental attachment to it.

Painting IIPainting III

Day Three Hundred and Fifty-Six: Pipes

While looking for Thai food, I stopped to take a photo of this row of what I suppose are water pipes. Unfortunately, the Thai restaurant in this parking lot was closed. But we found another one, so it all worked out. Yum.

Pipes:  September 21, 2009

Day Three Hundred and Fifty-Five: Waiting

Waiting:  September 20, 2009
This is Cory reading Neal Stephenson's Anathem at the Lubbock airport.

Day Three Hundred and Fifty-Four: Rust

Rust can be so pretty.

Rust:  September 19, 2009

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Day Three Hundred and Fifty-Three: Peeling

Peeling:  September 18, 2009
This is the first in a series of photos I took of the peeling paint on a curb in Lubbock.

See also:
Peeling II
Peeling III
Peeling IV
Peeling V
Peeling VI

Day Three Hundred and Fifty-Two: Shiner

Shiner:  September 17, 2009
This is one of my favorites. I do enjoy Shiner.

Day Three Hundred and Fifty-One: Screen

Screen:  September 16, 2009

Day Three Hundred and Fifty: Whiskers

Whiskers:  September 15, 2009
Gracie lies on the kitchen table, looking out the window. She does not want to sit still for the camera. She pretends to be too cool for posing and in doing so strikes a pose.

Gracie is concerned.Gracie PawsSophie

Day Three Hundred and Forty-Nine: Retro

This is the ceiling light in our bedroom.

Retro:  September 14, 2009

Day Three Hundred and Forty-Eight: Favorites

Favorites:  September 13, 2009
These are my go-to shoes. I love them. I got them super cheap at a thrift store and have worn them regularly, so they are starting to fall apart, which makes me really sad. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for another thrift replacement pair, but I may have to break down and buy new if I want more when these die.

Day Three Hundred and Forty-Seven: Moth

This moth perched on the outside of the living room window for several minutes, long enough for me to get some photos of it. Pretty.

Moth:  September 12, 2009

Day Three Hundred and Forty-Six: Ghost Window

Cory and Lisa and I went to the farmer's market in Dallas. I took this photo on the drive home afterward.

Ghost Window:  September 11, 2009

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Friday, October 2, 2009

Day Three Hundred and Forty-Four: Direction

Direction:  September 9, 2009
“If one advances confidently in the direction of one's dreams, and endeavors to live the life which one has imagined, one will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
~Henry David Thoreau

Day Three Hundred and Forty-Three: Heater

The bathroom in our rental house has map wallpaper and an old space heater in the wall. I suspect it doesn't work, but I'm kind of afraid to find out.

Heater:  September 8, 2009

Day Three Hundred and Forty-Two: Mess of Light

Mess of Light:  September 7, 2009
Light gives of itself freely, filling all available space. It does not seek anything in return; it asks not whether you are friend or foe. It gives of itself and is not thereby diminished.
~Michael Strassfeld

Sunlight
Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.
~Maori Proverb

Lightplosion
From within or from behind, a light shines through us upon things, and makes us aware that we are nothing, but the light is all.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dark LightsWhite Light