Three Mangoes for Hemingway

Searching for Margarito Temprana

“We are told artists are stubborn, and they certainly can be. But this isn’t always a bad thing. Stubbornness can be an essential ingredient in making a living off your art. When you harness your strategic stubbornness, you give the world a reason to believe in your work.” (Jeff Goins, Real Artists Don’t Starve)

Stubbornness has a bad reputation in creative circles. We treat it as evidence of someone difficult to work with, someone unwilling to take a note or adjust a plan. Goins is making a different claim.

The secret is being stubborn about the right things.

Writers can get stubborn about everything. The Thriving Artist is selective about where that stubbornness goes. For writers, this means staying flexible on details but stubborn on vision.

It is easy to obsess over minor edits or get defensive about small pieces of feedback. When we do that, the energy drains out of the work. The work starts to consume us, and we lose sight of what actually matters.

Protecting your vision takes real stubbornness. The trick is aiming it correctly. Know why you’re writing and what you’re trying to say, and don’t budge on that. Everything else stays open to change, the sentence you’re proud of tweaked, a paragraph gutted if it stops earning its place, occasionally the whole draft scrapped and started over.

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