Debra Messing, the actress who gained notoriety for playing Grace on Will & Grace, is also well-known for a famous quotation. She asserts,
When you’re passionate about something, you want it to be all it can be. But in the endgame of life, I fundamentally believe the key to happiness is letting go of that idea of perfection.
People might strive for perfection even though being ideal is not even real. Messing actually offered very wise words because a bleak fact about life is that nothing is perfect, including writing. There is nothing wrong with writing correctly and eloquently, of course, but a disappointing truth is that there really is no such thing as a perfect piece of writing.
I actually learned that harsh truth while assisting in publications in college and for volunteer experience. While I was a community college student at Pasadena City College, I helped edit the 2013 edition of Inscape Magazine, which is a publication that features creative writing from PCC students. I once submitted a very mediocre poem that the other editors rejected simply because it was that terrible. My poem was entitled, “Au Revoir Mon Amour,” and it was supposed to be an allusion to Jacques Demy’s 1964 masterpiece The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Damien Chazelle might have been able to remake that classic film into La La Land (2016), but my poem was trite and overly sentimental. Even with that crushing defeat in my pursuit of becoming a published writer, I learned that poems do not necessarily need to be romantic in order to be great.
After earning my Associate of Arts in English, I transferred to California State University, Los Angeles. It was there that I helped edit Statement Magazine. I was one of the most dedicated volunteer editors for that particular publication because I thoroughly enjoyed working as an editor and submissions reader at PCC. I even attempted to write numerous poems and creative works with the hope of having anything that I wrote gain a special spot within Statement Magazine.
I had dreamed of having my creative writing featured in that award-winning publication, but none of my work impressed the editorial staff. Gaining acceptance into that famous literary magazine was also incredibly competitive since I was competing against the entire CSULA community for a chance at publication. I felt humiliated after the other editors criticized my submissions with absolutely no mercy. None of the other editors knew which pieces I had written, but I knew for sure that I was unable to meet up to their high standards of what would be considered “literary.”
My heart broke after hearing occasionally rude comments about the poor quality of my poetry and other forms of creative writing. However, I did learn another lesson about the nature of writing. I realized that there really is no such thing as “perfect” writing because beautiful writing is actually very subjective. For example, a poem that I might personally view as beautiful would be considered distasteful in the eyes of another reader. It really is all just a matter of opinion.
Currently, I am a writer who enjoys writing for the sake of productivity and creativity. I actually like to submit work through an online submission manager called “Submittable,” and also serve as a volunteer submissions reader for a non-profit called E&GJ. Working in the publication field can be challenging, but I am just glad to be a fool who dares to dream. I fully support those who dare to dream because the world really does need creative writers in order to add beauty to the world.
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