The virtue of 'Not Wrong'

We have a tendency to look for the right, the best or even perfect choice, also when we are creating drama. Obviously there are good reasons to do that, but the mindset of the right and perfect also has a number of creative traps. As many creative people have realised, the mistake, the error, is a rich source for new developments.

In my work I utilize a category called 'not wrong'. In my process material which might not seem or feel absolutely right or perfect, I think of as 'not wrong' while I let it stay in the mix, until at some later point, the final material is ready to manifest itself.

The 'not wrong' material often end up in this category because I can see value in it; in some ways it is not wrong, but it lacks that special something, which cannot always be found in the first or even ninth take. I examine and ask questions to the material. Looking both for the qualities which makes it 'not wrong' and 'not perfect'.

The major trap in the mindset of perfection is the notion of only one, single perfect solution. And either-or-mindset. That its either perfect or wrong. Even if your way of thinking is not that extreme, most of us are in some degree conditioned by our culture's and society's mind-set about perfection. Practicing the discipline of 'not-wrong' helps avoiding the traps of perfection.

Speaking of perfect and mindset, after living in Greece, I integrated their version and understanding of perfect in mine. The word for perfect, Telios, also means final or in a variant, the end (as seen in the end of Greek films). So for the Greeks perfection is not necessarily the sublime, but that which finalizes a process.  And in that light, the 'not wrong' is a step in the process to reach the final expression, which might not even have the quality of perfection.

Allowing ourselves to avoid the trap of perfection, gives us the possibility to stay in a process, ask unbiased questions to the material and leave room for the kind of answers, which could surprise both us and our audience.