The Perfection of Ideas

 I was tempted to call this blogpost, "I wish." Because I'm not sure I altogether agree with the 18th century French moralist and essayist, Joseph Joubert, when he wrote, "When the idea has reached the highest level of perfection, the word breaks open like a blossom."

It would be wonderful to think so - that we will magically be able to translate the ideas of our minds and hearts into faultless prose or poetry, which will interpret them fluently to our readers or hearers. But it ain't necessarily so. Or at least, it isn't for me.

Sometimes, when I'm writing - whether it's an address, a blogpost, a journal article, or the latest scene of the work in progress, I am inspired (I call this 'a visit from the Inspiration Fairy') and the words do flow, and I seldom need to do much re-writing. But the more usual state of affairs (for me, and for most writers, I would guess) is that we sit in front of our computers or notebooks, staring at the blank page and thinking unprintable thoughts as we struggle to translate our ideas into words, sentences and paragraphs which will mean something to other people.

I always keep a notebook by my bed, in case the Inspiration Fairy comes to call. She has been good to me over the years, offering not only ideas, but also (sometimes) complete paragraphs or scenes. Often in the middle of the night - hence the notebook.

But I believe that most writing - whether it is an address, a short story, a magazine article or any work of fiction or non-fiction - comes into being through hard graft. It is the duty of the writer to turn up at their desk, roll up their sleeves and write.  The important thing is just to show up. It doesn't matter if what we write at first doesn't work, if we would blush to show it to anyone. The fact is, by having the faith to turn up, we are giving our writing muse a chance to show up themselves. We may only keep a single sentence out of a whole page on some days, but hey! That's still progress. And that single sentence may open the door to new ideas. Which will then need polishing into what Joubert calls "the highest level of perfection." Or at least, the highest level we are capable of producing, just then.

The final version may be (probably will be, most of the time) much different to what we first wrote - this blogpost, for example, has been revised quite a bit - but because I sat at my desk and showed up, the work has been done. And that is such a precious gift.