The Exquisite Misery of Failure

In an interview, novelist Jonathan Franzen said: “When I’m getting started with a new novel, I go and I fail, and there’s something exquisitely miserable about that failure.”

This is an idea all writers (really, all artists) should consider. When starting out on a project, especially one so difficult and ambitious and puzzling and mysterious as a novel, one cannot make progress without first failing—and until failure after failure gives way to the germinal hints of success, no real work will be accomplished. Such is the reason why it takes so long to write a good novel, why it took Jonathan Franzen ten years to finish his latest one.

Whether you are a writer, a painter, a musician, or with whatever art form you have chosen, you must be willing to produce failure—but go even further than willing. Take pleasure in the failure, knowing that you’re giving it your best shot, and that, eventually, you will achieve success. As long as you are afraid of failure, you will never be a good artist. Go and fail, and revel in that exquisite misery.