We have to allow ourselves the freedom to make mistakes, including cultural mistakes, in our first drafts. I believe it's okay to get cultural details wrong in your first draft. It's okay if stereotypes emerge. It just means that your experience is limited, that you're human.
Interpretation
Mistakes are a natural part of the creative process and should be accepted as learning opportunities.
In this quote, Gene Luen Yang emphasizes that in the journey of creativity, particularly when drafting stories or works that involve cultural representation, it is important to embrace the possibility of making mistakes. He argues that getting certain cultural details wrong, especially in early drafts, is a reflection of our human limitations and experiences, and rather than viewing those missteps negatively, writers should see them as opportunities for growth and understanding.
In practice
During a writing workshop, a facilitator can use this quote to encourage participants to embrace their early drafts.
There is a whole industry in America of people who want to write, and those who teach it. Even if the students don't end up writing, what's good about them taking the courses is, they become great readers, learning to appreciate the writing.
Reading is at the center of our lives. The library is our brain. Without the library, you have no civilization.
Travel is the best investment you can make in yourself. It teaches you that there are many ways to live a good, fulfilled life. It broadens your world view, yet makes you appreciate home all the more.
The longer I write, the more important I believe it is to write the first draft as fast as possible. In drafting, I push myself so I am at the edge of discomfort...Later, it will be time for consideration and reconsideration, slow, careful revision and editing. But on the first draft I have to achieve velocity, just as you do if you want the bike to balance.
Now, the education of our children is of national concern, and if they are not educated properly, it is a national calamity.
You can't educate a child who isn't healthy, and you can't keep a child healthy who isn't educated.
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