DAY SEVENTEEN

Should we suspend judgment until a work is finished? I don't know, let's think about it later. 
 
Anyone involved in any sort of creative project will have faced this question many times. In fact, it's probably impossible to totally suspend judgment while working on something; there are a myriad of small decisions which have to be made along the way, each one implying some process of judgment. Much of this will be an unconscious process, and as a general rule I think the more experienced the maker is with a certain process, the more unconscious the process of questioning and judgment is likely to be. Indeed, this now comes under the heading 'received wisdom' I think. 
 
Some of you may be familiar with the idea that in learning any subject or skill we go through the stages of: Unconscious Incompetence → Conscious Incompetence → Conscious Competence → Unconscious Competence

In other words we go from not knowing what we don't know to not knowing what we do know, first learning, and then developing insight and skills with experience along the way. When we reach a level of unconscious competence, what might be called mastery, we do things almost unthinkingly, and moreover, if asked to explain why we are doing what we are doing, we may have some difficulty actually explaining the reasons. I must admit I rather enjoy the first two stages and tend to lose interest in something once I feel it is 'sufficiently' under my belt. 

Ach, I'm circling around the problem, hoping to rationalise it away.
 
The question of reserving judgment is on my mind today because having not written anything towards the novel for some days I am on the horns of a familiar dilemma - to push on through, write now and revise later, or revise the 'sticking point' (a difficult passage of writing that isn't right), clear the blockage and then move on. Schools of thought on what to do in this situation are legion but essentially the choice boils down to one of these two general options. 

The image above, something I drew and which lived on my office whiteboard for many years, is my preferred answer but while the head tells me to push on, my heart, for the moment, won't let me.

Onwards...sooner or later.
 
 





 


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