by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
Anyone who regularly reads this blog knows that I’m not a perfectionist. There are too many typos for that to be the case.
There was a time, however, when I was a perfectionist. I wasn’t nearly as productive as I am now, and I was extremely averse to hearing editorial suggestions from editors or even well-meaning beta readers. The problem was that I wanted to fix my story’s problems myself … and even catch the errors myself.
I’m Type A now, but I’m not a perfectionist. Usually I’ll do a task, any task, and figure it’s good enough. It’s just that I’m very compulsive about doing the tasks. Laundry is done every day (the folding isn’t pretty), writing is done every day (sometimes it’s not pretty, either). But I’m extremely productive because I don’t feel the need to deliver something perfect to my editor.
As I mentioned, I wasn’t always this way. As a student, I was actually more like two different students rolled into one. I was the English student who did very well, but felt pressure to be doing well, too (mostly internal pressure). To me, hearing ‘do your best’ meant that a completed English assignment needed to be pretty extraordinary. That’s what having even a modicum of talent does to you.
In math class, I was a horrendous student. Despite tutors and hours and hours spent studying, I couldn’t grasp or apply concepts that I learned. Hearing ‘do your best’ in that class was actually very comforting. It meant that it was understood that I might do (very) poorly on the test, but at least I had given it my all…which is all anyone can expect.
As a reformed perfectionist, this is my simple message for today: take ‘do the best you can’ the comforting, encouraging way when you’re writing. Take ‘do the best you can’ the pushy, driven way when you’re revising your finished story, (if you take it at all).
For further reading on overcoming perfectionism:
17 Signs Perfectionism is Killing Your Writing Dreams by Mandy Wallace
5 Tricks to Sneak Past Perfectionism by Michelle Russell
Perfectionism is Murdering Your Muse by Veronica Sicoe
Do you struggle with perfectionism? What’s helped you?
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