A writer friend told me her 11-year-old son didn't want to slow her the poem he wrote for homework because "it isn't any good". She answered, "Honey, how could you possibly know?"
She wasn't criticizing his judgment of writing in general, of course, but pointing out that writers are seldom in a position to evaluate the quality of our own work. Sure, we might do some decent technical revision, especially if we've put a particular piece aside and returned to it afresh. But to assess the quality or worthiness of a creative piece, especially when we've just written or are still in the process of writing it? Not so much.
The idea that I am not necessarily in any position to judge my own writing is not a brand new concept for me, but it reasserted itself recently as I tried to understand two of my most problematic writing (and non-writing) behaviors: dropping my writing practice/routine, and leaving pieces of writing unfinished. (Not that all writing needs to or should become something other than practice, but that's another topic for a different post).
When I asked myself recently how I can tell when a work is worth finishing or is in fact finished, I thought, "I'll know because I love it when I read it." But when I shared that idea with another writing friend, he laughed out loud.
"If that were my criteria, I wouldn't finish or submit anything for a very long time. Maybe forever."
He has a good point. In general, and especially if one has a habit of being self-critical, which is true of me and, I would guess, of most creative types.
So I have made an agreement to share work with another writer regularly. I don't have to share everything, but I do have to keep my mind open that an objective reader might find value in something I've started to write but then abandoned as crap.
In other words, I am leaving the judging of at least a portion of my work to someone more qualified. Not skill-wise, but perspective-wise.
Hmm. Perhaps this applies to judging one's own parenting, too?
Food for thought.
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