Make mistakes! Make mitsakes!

I always appreciate a little encouragement, since I do it anyway. Here are some tidbits I've gathered recently:

1. "Only the mediocre are always at their best."
--Jean Giraudoux, French writer and diplomat (1882–1944)

2. The "Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef" is crocheted models of kelp, anemones, slugs, and other creatures that make up coral reefs--from the exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center.

The coral reef organisms pictured here are created from what could be considered "bad" crocheting:
"Aniqua Wilkerson, a member of the Harlem Knitting Circle [on my blogroll], explained she first learned to knit... through trial and error.
"She had tried to crochet hats, but they kept buckling.
'That was a mistake,' she said as she finished up a tightly woven urchin in lime green, melon and turquoise. 'I realized it was from increasing the stitches too much.' Which is precisely the method used to create hyperbolic forms."
--from a cool NYT article that links math, science, knitting and ecology: "Want to Save a Coral Reef? Bring Along Your Crochet Hook".

3. from "Last Night":
Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt a marvelous error;
That I had a beehive here inside my heart.
And the golden bees were making white combs
And sweet honey from my past mistakes.

--Spanish poet Antonio Machado (1875-1939)

4. A bit of advice [on writing graphic novels, but it goes for anything] from Mike Mignola:
"I CAN pass on something that Frank Miller told me when I was about to start Hellboy--It's as good advice as I've ever gotten on this subject. He said something like 'just do it, do the best you can, don't drive yourself crazy, just KNOW that when you look back on it you're going to hate it. It can't be helped. The next one will be better.' "

5. “The thing about writing is that even your failures get reclassified as raw material.”
--Sci-fi and Fantasy writer Lois McMaster Bujold, 2008