calling the baby ugly

In the real world of software project management, in which I used to be a small player on the sidelines, we used to talk quietly about calling someone's baby ugly. It's in reference to a project or a technical solution that just doesn't work well, but someone wrote it and has invested some emotion in keeping it going, no matter how inappropriate it is.

Here I am calling my own baby ugly. Creativity isn't always about producing something beautiful. It's about playing with various constraints, building on thoughts and ideas and trying to come up with something new. It doesn't always come out well. Sometimes you have to step back, call the baby ugly and move on. 

I'm re-reading Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott. She talks about persistence, editing, more editing, and walking around behind the back of your work, to really understand what you've got there. Maybe it's ugly. Keep working on it.

The baby. It's ugly. No getting around it. It was making me feel stuck.

Editing, reworking, changing it up.