Home For Fiction – Blog

How can we be good enough at writing? Maybe the question puzzles you. “I don’t want to be just ‘good enough’ at writing”, you might say. “I want to to be excellent! The best!”

And yet, have you ever wondered whether there’s a paradox in a situation where the world wants us all to be “the best”?

Inspiration for this post came after I saw a short documentary about Jiro Ono, arguably the world’s best sushi chef. At the age of 85 (at the time of the documentary, some 10 years ago), he was still working long hours at his diminutive restaurant. In the documentary, we see him and his son, together with some apprentices, working hard to prepare the day’s sushi.

But there are dark clouds under this facade of perfection, that most people fail to notice. Yet, if you’re wondering whether you shouldn’t be just “good enough” at writing because you want to be excellent, such details are worth paying attention, as we’ll see in this post.

Good Enough Writing vs the American Dream

The documentary about Jiro Ono is offered as some sort of “American Dream” scenario: Work hard, and you’ll make it to the top. However, as I said, there are details that likely pass unnoticed by most viewers.

The one that haunted me the most was how the 85-year-old Jiro (who lost his children’s childhood because he was working all the time) said, referring to his 50-year-old son: “All he has to do is continue to work like this for the rest of his life.”

In that moment, the expression on the son’s face was telling, for those who can see.

I saw condensed, in one second, all the what-ifs, all the lost dreams, all the what-might-have-beens (that, quoth Robert Smith, “filled me with the hope to wish impossible things“).

What does writing have to do with all that?

What Do You Want?

Even if we could define “making it to the top” – and naively assumed it’s a simple hard-work-takes-you-there scenario – we’d still need to address the repercussions. “Making it to the top” involves missing out on virtually everything that makes up what we call “a life”.

The pattern is similar, if not identical:

• Musicians who shut themselves in the studio and alienate their partners.
• Writers who shut themselves in the study and miss their friends’ birthdays.
• Sushi chefs who are in the house so rarely, their children tell their mother “there is a stranger sleeping on the couch” (not making it up; happened to Jiro Ono).

I have no doubt Jiro Ono (and perhaps his son) profess their love for what they’re doing. They might even believe it (confirmation bias and psychological compensation are very powerful things). 

I Want to Be Good Enough at Writing

As for me, I don’t want to be the best writer. I don’t want to be the best anything. Heck, I wouldn’t even want to be excellent, if it involved missing out on life.

The only reason I’m fairly good at writing is because my brain is wired that way, allowing me to remember, reflect, and “synthesize huge amounts of information”This is a verbatim comment from the reviewers of my MA thesis., conjoining incongruous things and finding connections – this post is a meta-reincarnation of this very thing, if you noticed.

That’s all what my writing is about, fiction or nonfiction: seeing things that “don’t” exist. 

Obsession Doesn’t Work for You

Obsession about excellence works well for others, in that it offers the world timeless art or inspiring creations in general. But it rarely works well for the creators themselves. Just take a look at tortured souls like, say, Vincent van Gogh. 

The truth is, I don’t want to work hard; I’m lazy. I want to enjoy being lazy, traveling, experiencing. Above all, I want to enjoy being with people I care about, experiencing with them. 

The best? Nah, pass. Degrowth is what I prefer. I’d rather be just “good enough” at writing and have fun in the process.