This is the final part in our series on procrastination, and I wanted to take a quick look at something that quite a few writers struggle with: perfectionism.
When it comes to writing, there's rarely a "perfect" answer. Of course, there are certain rules or guidelines to follow -- but even some grammatical rules can be broken for effect. (It just comes down to knowing when and where to break them.)
There's also some degree of diminishing returns on time invested. You could spend an hour agonising over two sentences of your novel, and they wouldn't necessarily be that much better than what you started with.
I don't want to diminish the importance of rewriting and honing your work. But I do think it's important to draw a firm line between "good enough" and "imaginary perfection". You could work on the same novel for years of your life – even decades – without feeling it ever reached perfection.
If you know you're spending too much time on the things you're writing, here are some practical things to try:
- Give yourself a time limit. I do this for freelance pieces (based on what I want to make per hour!) and it works really well. With some lower-paying work, I've worried that the end result wouldn't be up to standard ... but my clients have been perfectly happy.
- Plan (a little) more before you write. If you find that you're rewriting heavily – cutting out huge chunks of what you've written, adding in loads of new material, rearranging the order of your piece dramatically – then you might want to spend a little bit more time planning before you write.
- Think of all the books, TV, films, etc you've enjoyed that weren't perfect. One of my favourite fantasy trilogies gets off to a pretty slow start ... and could really do with some stronger female characters. I'm still glad it was published and that I got to read it! Some of the TV series I enjoy have so-so episodes -- it doesn't matter; all the good episodes are worth a few slow or clunky
ones.
- Get a beta-reader or editor. If you're feeling unsure about something you've written (especially if you're writing fiction), then getting feedback from a beta-reader or editor can help. They may point out issues you'd have missed – and they won't agonise over tiny details that you might get hung up on.
Instead of aiming for "perfect", think of making your work "perfectly good enough". It doesn't need to be edited to death (sometimes, over-editing can end up writing out your personality, which isn't what you want at all). It doesn't need to be agonised over for months on end. Yes, it might never reach the perfect image you had in your head when you started out ... but it could still be very much enjoyed by your
readers.
