Perfectionism Sucks

Why Perfectionism is Bad For Your Writing

How many articles have you written lately? How many pages of your novel? How many poems?

If the answer is less than you would like, I’d argue the problem likely isn’t laziness, or even busyness, but perfectionism.

The standards we put on our creative output are insane. When you sit down to write, how much time do you waste worrying it won’t be good enough? How much of your effort goes into feeling upset or anxious that your skill level isn’t where you want it to be?

If you took all the time you spent worrying about being good enough, and used it to create, how much further along would you be?

In terms of skill development and progress 500 crappy words is worth so much more than 0 and still more than 200 perfect ones. You’ll never get to the standard you want to be at if you don’t actually start.

We convince ourselves we need to be great right now, rather than accepting that you only get to great through bad, then alright, then good.

Besides, you can always make it better later. You need to actually have a first draft on the page if you want to have any chance of editing it though.

Start publishing

Part of letting go of perfectionism and therefore getting better at art, is saying stuff is done.

The skill gain from 0 to 1 draft is massive, 1 to 2 is still big, but how much better are you getting from 2-10? It’s so valuable to publish a finished piece of work regularly and move on to the next thing.

This is part of the reasoning behind me starting Substack. It’s something I can take from 0 drafts to 3 every week. I get to maximise my growth as a writer because I’m constantly doing the part of the process that leads to the biggest gains.

Doing lots of reps at 0-3 will also help you when you have to do 4-10, because eventually the quality of new old 1 will be like the quality of your old 7.

I will not do more than three drafts of a substack post.

That means a complete word vomit to take me from 0 to 1.

A structural edit gets me to 2.

Then a quick proofread to 3.

Then I’m done, ready to start from 0 next week.

It takes so much pressure off. I just hit publish at that point. If people hate it, it’s just one substack post! If people like it, that’s awesome too. Either way, I got my reps in.

How Does it Work for Books?

I love writing novels, but it takes six months to get from 0 to 1. I spend a lot more time writing long form than I do writing on substack, but my strategy is the same. I have written four books in five years. And my first three were pretty average. It’s only with book 4 that I’m starting to feel like a journeyman. That I’m starting to see actual interest in my writing.

I’ve also planned three additional books. 5000 word outlines, worldbuilding documents etc. I do it as practice. Structure is so hard. So I practice structure. I don’t spend months on it. It’s usually a week or two of a little bit hear and there.

I rarely focus on the quality of anything I’m doing in the moment. I just get my 30 minute to an hour stint done every morning. It’s a novel though, so you do have to take it from 1-10. But I know that my new 1 is so much better than my old 1. So, that process is going to be easier than if I’d spent five years working on one thing.

I also tend to abandon a project once I’m just shifting words around or thesaurusing stuff. There’s not much left to learn at that stage.

It’s like going to the gym. You get stronger by lifting smaller weights now so that you can lift bigger weights in the future. I’m training to be the writer I will be in the future. I give myself grace to not be him yet.

It’s all part of a plan to get as much skill development as possible.

I know that, when the time comes, I will be ready. When I get my opportunity, I will have prepared for it by making consistent shitty art.

Who knows if this strategy will work in the long run. But for now, it’s extremely sustainable. I rarely get tired of writing or need a break. I’m playing the long game. I don’t stress myself out over quality. I just chip away at my craft every day in small amounts, not worrying about being perfect.

I finish projects and I move on. It’s about the process.

Whoops, I actually only did 2 drafts of this one!

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Enjoy this article?

You might like my post about Treating Writing like Exercise

And this one about Why We’re Afraid to Be Awesome