Finished, Not Perfect

On returning to making things

I finished the damn poetry thing. It only took me 3 years.

When you start with an idea, it’s easy to get lost in thinking how good it’ll be. The beauty of it for me was having finished and the imaginary acclaim that it would net me. Of course, in reality that would not be the case. Most of the 2nd part didn’t even get engagement on WordPress, if we’re judging acclaim from number of likes there.

Naturally, the goals shift and it became more about the lessons I’d learn along the way. In this envisioning it took me a year but it became apparent I bit off more than I could chew. I won’t rehash the main points I made about it all but I am satisfied with the end result. Honestly, I thought it would grant me unbridled joy and I would have developed so much as a poet because of it but I developed more as a poet around the project. Next time I do something I will dedicate more time to it and release it all when it’s done, not piecemeal, like this.

For this last push, the prevailing thinking I focused on was the philosophy of “finished, not perfect” which is hilarious to me because that was one of the poems I cut. But that is emblematic of this work: it was more defined by what poems I didn’t include. See, it’s a short one, with only 7 poems in total, including the interlude and epilogue. I scrapped about as many. In my WIP file, the corpses of old poems just are floating face down by the wayside.

But in between that, I had been submitting to things with little success. This has made me re-evaluate the stuff I’ve made. Sometimes it’s rejected and it’s good (but not a good fit for the publication) and sometimes it is not good. But it’s all been instructive. Being able to distinguish that for yourself is tricky but often I can trust my instincts on this. I’ve been recommended for stuff by other people through their faith in my abilities which is flattering but instinctively I knew I wasn’t up for them. Yet. Again, I can’t always know, but my instincts are telling me these are ready. I also have some ideas about the next part of this bigger thing I’m doing but that will have to wait.

There is a post in me about how improving means you’re a slower writer but not right now. For now, plan of action: the final 7 poems go live starting 31st December 2021 and will release every Wednesday into February. But, as a bonus, I’ll have footnotes to the poems after the release as a little behind-the-scenes, like what sort of things inspired or shaped the poem. This will only be here, as a treat. I haven’t decided on whether it’ll be the same week or the week following the poem.

Before then, they'll be a post every week about where I am and what I’ve been thinking about. I’m tentatively gonna call it “On Wednesdays, We Write” where I talk about all things writing. I’m in the midst of giving feedback on short stories and synopses while writing my own and in the planning stage of my novel.

This final part is all about the ideas concerning two friends and the sort of mythic quality an intense interpersonal relationship can have. We’re almost there.