A few months ago, I’d set a deadline for myself to finish a new book by Halloween. I’m working as hard and consistently as I can on the book, but that deadline is not going to happen.
I could have shipped the incomplete manuscript as it is, Virgil Abloh style, but I decided against that. The work deserves to make a good first impression on its readers. In some ways, that felt like the easier choice—I wouldn’t have to sit with this uncomfortable draft and plod away at it any longer, or tell my friends that I’m “still” working on the book.
So I decided to keep working on it. The beauty of working independently is there is no one holding up a deadline or adding pressure, except me. There will be no rest for the weary.
I’m noticing my improvement as a writer though. For example, this decision would have been a cause for despair in earlier years. I have given up projects at this state before in rage and impatience; if it’s not ready now, it will never be, I figured. That’s not the case this time; I am halfway through eating this metaphorical whale, and I will keep going one bite at a time.
There’s a term for this called “Negative Capability,” which poet John Keats describes as when a person “is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” It’s not just for exploring a topic; it’s for the writing process itself as well.
(I set a new deadline to be clear.)