A case for embracing mistakes

This is a photograph of Ian Curtis’ diary in which he wrote the lyrics for many Joy Divison songs.

Writing, with actual pen (you remember pens, right?) and paper is a great way to get your creativity flowing. There’s something primal and deeply fulfilling about your hand gliding across a smooth blank surface, watching the page fill with words and images that flow directly out of you. And if you change your mind about what you wrote, no problem, just scratch it out and try again.

Technology enables us to erase our mistakes so that they are no longer visible at all. But Seymour thinks it’s the mistakes that make life interesting.

Mistakes allow us to see of how far we’ve come, they act as markers, sign posts that help us find our way on the road of our personal progress.

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes when creating. It’s an integral part of the process.

 

“Most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one’s mistakes.”

-Oscar Wilde