care so much it hurts

Read the advice yesterday: writing is best when you don't care.

I'm not sure whether I agree.

On the one hand, writing is ALWAYS better than not writing.  If you care so much about each word that you're paralyzed, you'll never really write.  

I don't believe in spending a lot of time thinking and planning beforehand, because I think you can't really tell whether or not something works or is engaging without actually writing it out.  It's WAYYYY better to have a shitty draft than to have a shitty outline.  A shitty draft is the first step to a great story, while a shitty outline is (nearly) worthless.

On the other hand, you've got to think what you're doing is meaningful.  Perfectionism is a bad thing through the first few drafts, because it can paralyze you.  But you've got to believe that you CAN be fantastic.

Writing is tough because it's a difficult craft to master.  But it's also tough because a lot of people think it's easy, worthless, or brainless.  When you make writing the center of your life, that means money, fun, and even family, sometimes has to play second-fiddle.... which A LOT of people won't understand.  They'll have contempt for how you live your life, and they'll have contempt for you.

It's easy to care too little about your writing- pretty much everyone around you probably wishes you would care less.  They'll eat up your time and energy until your writing gathers dust and you're a perpetual hobbiest.

I think you've got to care A LOT about writing in order to write.  You've got to make the commitment to write despite what everyone thinks, despite the lifestyle sacrifices you have to make, and despite it being pretty damn tough in and of itself- and that requires taking writing, and your writing in particular- seriously.

And I don't think perfectionism has to do with caring about writing.  I think it comes from arrogance- the idea that you actually CAN be perfect.  The idea that writing is something you can master without practice or mistakes.

So, I don't know about anybody else, but I don't think my mantra can be "don't care."

My mantra is "be humble and devoted."  Because if I'm humble, I won't mind if my stuff is sometimes shit.  And if I'm devoted, I'll keep going anyway.