Odd couplings

Lots of writing commentators have observed that our inner critic can often get in the way of our writing process. In this frame of mind, there seems to be only one right way, and that the epistemic and expressive penultimate; everything else is the wrong way. Does this sound familiar?

There’s an old movie called The Odd Couple (1968)*, which stars Walter Matthau (as Oscar) and Jack Lemmon (as Felix); it’s an absolute scream. In a hilarious climatic scene on the rooftop of their apartment building, Oscar, who has had quite enough of Felix’s irritating shenanigans, fumes at Felix, and, tragic as ever, a chagrined Felix remarks, “In other words, you’re throwin’ me out.” And Walt replies, “Not in other words! Those are the perfect ones!”

To return to the point,

I put to you that, no matter how inadequate some words may seem to you at the moment of writing them, those words are the perfect ones—even if they don’t convey your thought accurately enough, or expansively enough; even if they aren’t grammatically correct; even (and especially) if they don’t yet sound like finished prose.

There will be time enough for all these things to be rearranged and rethought, but you can’t change or edit what you haven’t written, so write, just write, and leave what appears to be “wrong” for the chaff blowing phase, which will have its own moment.

I repeat: write, just write; leave your odd couplings on the page and keep writing.

And, have a beautiful day (writing, writing, writing)!

* You can read about the movie here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Odd_Couple_(film)