I’d like to elaborate on something Anne Lamott said about writing, about creation, really. She urged writers to allow themselves to create “shitty first drafts.”
You don’t have to wait until something is perfect, the “Bird by Bird” author insists. You shouldn’t wait to capture the perfect sentence, paragraph, scene, chapter, movie. Because if you do, God help you. You’ll never get started.
I have a visual representation of how a creative project should be allowed to make its debut, even if it’s rough around the edges. If you work hard enough and it’s meant to be, people will be interested. They’ll like it even as you work to polish it. There’s time to perfect.
We all have in our minds a visual representation of a cartoon character at his or her mature, final state. But Mickey Mouse of today didn’t always look like Mickey Mouse of today. He was more rodent-like, less cute.
Have you looked at The Simpsons when they made their debut on the Tracey Ullman show, these many years ago.
(Where are you, Tracey? I’ll have to find out. Probably in some fabulous British crime drama. I just remembered how funny and great you were on your show. A real breath of fresh air. I don’t know why, but my favorite Tracey Ullman character was Kay, an Australian tennis player whose words were drawn out and whose temperament was melancholic. It made everything she said hilarious.)
The Simpsons were something different, irreverent and engaging on the Tracey Ullman show. However, the depiction of the famously yellow and lovingly dysfunctional family was a bit crude. The drawings were rougher-edged. Homer was smarter but meaner at first. He really wanted to strangle Bart.
Look at early Charlie Brown, too. He looked a bit younger and his frown was less pronounced. He looked like he was bugged, or in a pickle, but early charlie lacked the existential angst of latter-years Chuck. He didn’t have those tired and frazzled parenthesis around his eyes. He hadn’t yet achieved the grimace for which he is famous, that wavy glued-down-yarn frown.
Never has a character with such a round visage had such a long face. To return to my point, and to Anne Lamott’s point, let your work be shitty, or if it’s not shitty, let it come out of you like raw ore from a mine. You can always polish it.
Let yourself evolve like Charlie Brown. Start with an idea and work to the ideal. And, if at all possible, adopt a beagle.
—Sarah Torribio
Leave a Reply