Perfectionsim, Anti-Perfectionsim & In-between
The writer seeking help says, “I am unable to write anything because I fear it’s not going to be perfect.”
No amount of counter-arguing helps. The writer is convinced that it’s perfectionism that is stopping them and there’s no way out.
An objective observer might call the writer at hand lazy. Another objective observer would call them confused. Yet another one would say writer’s block is a proven phenomenon and needs serious psychological attention. Another one might refer them to the shaman.
In the field of writing, pros always see writing as a habit, a task, a daily job. They worry rarely about the quality of writing in the first place. They worry about beginning, middle and the end. They worry about a certain number of chapters or a number of words. Quality comes last. The creative process — and editing is somehow a part of that though not completely — has to follow a process.
A process has discipline and steps. My own editing process is usually iterative. In first round you fix all the flaws you can find and fix easily, and the second one you can go in deeper and maybe tackle the tough ones.
Nike’s famous Just Do It slogan can be a philosophy to unblock the stuck writer. Tim Ferris (while referring to Paulo Coehlo, I think) said that he asks the writer to just generate 10 crappy pages each day so that they get the book done (first draft). That’s exactly the way out of perfectionism and writer’s block.
In fact, I encourage the creatives out there to actively adopt an anti-perfect ideology and be brave enough to write flawed pieces and then publish them. This very piece here could have been improved but I value publishing more than editing, so I decided to publish it in it current form. With that, my weekly quota of writing is done.
When I wanted to blog today, I was stuck with a few topics and could not decide which one to write about. Then I did some thinking and realized that unless I simply write anything, nothing will be written. I think discipline surpases so many other values. The process of writing itself fixes so many things so it’s really about flexing those writing muscles. And writing imperfectly helps.
Do write imperfectly,
S. K. Barlaas
