Reviews for The joy of doing things badly

The average rating for The joy of doing things badly based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-11-16 00:00:00 Ed Babin III <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 For example, this passage (pp. 27-28): "It's no secret that I cannot sing. I have a voice that could peel paint off the walls. For a long time, I hid this flaw, embarrassed... "One Sunday morning I was pressing my lips shut and clapping my hands when the minister sidled up next to me. "'Why aren't you singing?' he asked. "'I can't sing,' I whispered to him, afraid of attracting too much attention. 'I have an awful voice.' "Then the minister looked at me and said five of the most beautiful words I have ever heard. He said, 'Do you think God cares?' "Ever since that glorious day, my love for singing has grown exponentially. I sing in the shower and around the house. I sing in the car, at church, and on the dance floor... [M]y singing, wretched as it may be, has vastly improved my living. 'I want to tell you something but I don't want you to be offended,' Jason, my then fiance, told me as we washed the dinner dishes and I crooned along to Ella Fitzgerald. 'The thing I love about you is that your singing is so wretched but you do it anyway.' "His backhanded compliment confirmed not only why I married him but a truth I had long suspected. The things we do badly set us apart; what we consider our failures have a surprising ability to charm. We think we have to be perfect for other people to love us, when in fact the opposite is true. We are loved for our imperfections--for our funny faces and walks and dances and songs." This book is exactly what I needed to read right now. "Balm" is the word that comes to mind (although the more you look at that word and think about it, the weirder it seems). Also, the chapter on rejection made me realize why I've been so entrenched in procrastination with pitching guest posts, which I know I need to do. Duh, I'm afraid of rejection. Sometimes the truth is right in front of my face, but I don't see it until someone else points it out. Maybe now that I know that's all it is, I can get on with it. I think I've had the mistaken underlying assumption that when you're a professional writer, you've somehow transcended being bothered by rejection. You know it's part of life, and it just means someone else wasn't convinced your idea was a good fit for them right now, not that your idea, writing, or self is bad, so it doesn't bother you. This chapter showed me what total bull that is. This chick is a "real" writer, and she has a three-day routine to help herself get over each rejection! (Day 1: cry all you want, we'll make more. Day 2: you can still cry, but you have to get out of the house. Day 3: crying is ok, but get back on the horse. Pitch another idea somewhere else or put yourself out there in some way.) Also, remember that delay is not denial. Even if you don't get what you want now, you will get it eventually (though possibly in a different form). "Seven days a week, we do our best." --don't be so hard on yourself. One Art by Elizabeth Bishop--the art of losing--"practice losing farther, losing faster"! Actually sad to be finished with this sweet and comforting book--I will miss it.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-03-10 00:00:00 Jon Patti I could only read a third of this book and skimmed the rest. Veronica has some good points, but I found myself eyerolling a lot.