8 Ways to Avoid Writer’s Perfectionism

For a perfectionist, the writing process can consist more of deleting and rewriting than actually expanding and producing new content. Now imagine how much more work us perfectionists would get done if we spent that time writing instead of editing the same sentence over and over? The mind boggles!

            Sure being a perfectionist means you care about creating great work. And we all want our books to be just that: a great work. But when you’re a perfectionist, you want every word, sentence, and paragraph to flow like poetry. You want everything to be perfect, right here and right now. It can be downright exhausting, if not debilitating. It could potentially stop you in your writing tracks and prevent you from finishing your novel.

            So, how do we avoid this?

1) Just get it down!

A first draft is the perfectionist’s nemesis. Give it a cape and a supervillain name while you’re at it. But you just need to remember that your first draft is just that: a first attempt to get the story out of your system. It’s allowed to be imperfect.

If you’re too scared to start writing because you’re worried it won’t be perfect, you’ll never write anything at all. You’ll never know if the work you have in mind is it going to be good until you give it a try. And if it really, truly is crap? Well, who’s it going to hurt by getting it out on paper? Chin up and start again, you deserve to live your passion.

2) Separate your creative side from your editor side.

            It’s important to be able to self-edit, but it’s equally important that you treat your writing and editing process as separate tasks. This will ensure that you spend your time more productively and effectively.

            If you’re writing and editing simultaneously, you’ll exhaust your mind far quicker than if you were to just be creative first, then a stone-cold word killer later.

            Get everything on the page, feel it rather than think it, be messy, don’t be afraid to write badly if you can’t think about how to write it well now. Just get it out, let yourself loose. Once you’re done, welcome your perfectionist side back with open arms and let them gather the mess into something wonderful.

3) Make a plan.

            Are you a pantser or a plotter? No, I don’t mean do you pants people. A lot of first time writers make the mistake of being a pantser aka writing by the seat of their pants. But, if you’re going to try and write a cohesive novel in a timely fashion, taking the time to plot your novel is really important. It also helps get som of the perfectionist tendencies out of the ways. You can shine with your spreadsheets, mind maps, and research.

            This will all help us feel more in control when it comes to getting the words out. You’re less likely to hit a wall or doubt yourself midway if you’ve planned in advance.

4) Remember that just because it isn’t perfect, doesn’t mean it isn’t good.

            As a perfectionist, we often equate the absence of perfection with failure. We need to stop this though process in its tracks because it’s absolutely debilitating. There are a million reasons to doubt yourself, but not being perfect 100% of the time shouldn’t be one of them. You could still be writing something great and, just because it’s not perfect now, doesn’t mean it won’t be with some hard work during the editing stage.

5) Create time pressures.

            Perfectionists generally benefit from working in tight time constraints. If you give yourself a specific time limit, deadline, or word count, your focus will switch to a different target. Instead of focusing on writing perfect stories, you’ll aim to reach that deadline.

            Your feeling of accomplishment will come from reaching that target rather than ensuring everything is flawless. You’ll encourage yourself to free write quickly rather than staring at a blinking cursor hoping to write the next best thing.

            Set a timer and write your heart out. Don’t stop, don’t re-read, and definitely don’t edit.

            You may write something awesome or something average. It doesn’t matter – you’ll have something tangible and you can work with that.

6) Remember that it’s okay to fail.

            Perfectionists are more inclined to feel anxious and upset when it comes to their work. Although most creatives fear failure, rejection, and simply producing bad work, perfectionists feel this on a whole other level.

            We have to remind ourselves that no one starts off being perfect at anything. If you’re writing your first draft, especially of your very first novel, it’s going to show at first, and that’s okay. Self-editing will help and a great editor can be a worthwhile investment to help with developmental and copy editing.

            Remember that we rarely see the sweat, tears, and failures of others. But everyone has to fail in order to lean and move forwards.

7) Be brave enough to share your work.

            We usually want to wait until we feel our work is in its most perfect form before we show it to anyone else. This is rarely helpful.

            Being vulnerable enough to show people your work in the early stages is beneficial for so many reasons. Fresh eyes see plot holes and inconsistencies; big picture items that the writer can often be too close to see. Again, this is a great reason to invest in a professional editor, as they are accustomed to spotting things like this and can help you improve your writing so it’s of the calibre you’re aiming for.

            No one is going to like you less because your story isn’t perfect. No one will think less of you. And if they do, send them my way. I’ll have a few words with them. They should only ever be impressed that you had the courage to write at all.

            Writers have a tendency to underestimate themselves, but if you’re passionate about writing and practice frequently, the odds are that you’ll already be in the above average category without realising it.

8) Don’t compare your work to the work of others.

            I cannot stress this one enough.

            You’ve just had a burst of inspiration. You’ve written several pages of what you believe is genuinely good work. You’re so excited, this is a massive accomplishment…and then you pick up someone else’s novel and read their great work.

            You feel deflated, and immediately doubt your own accomplishments.

            Okay, let’s take a step back. Remember, what you’re reading is usually going to be a final draft, edited by multiple editors, with hundreds of hours poured into it. You’re not seeing the pools of sweat and tears that went into its production.

            Also remember that there’s enough success in the world to go around. Just because someone else’s work is successful doesn’t mean there’s one less spot available for you.

            I am by no means saying don’t read while you’re writing. There couldn’t be anything more important to a writer than reading. Just try to bear in mind that what you’re looking at is a published work, which has had a lot of time and effort put into it. Yours is only a first draft.

9) You’ll never be perfect, so just write!

            Look, there I go, telling you there will only be eight ways to avoid perfectionism but I gave you nine. Imperfect me strikes again. So it goes.

            As perfectionists, we are extra critical of our work. We are critical of our talent and potential. It would take you a lifetime to be as good of a writer as you want to be, and, even then, that wouldn’t be long enough. Perfection is an illusion.

            You could spend forever re-writing each sentence, paragraph, or chapter. But we need to know when to draw the line of our perfectionism and send our little writing baby out into the world to stand on its own two feet.

            Give yourself a break, because otherwise, writing will become an exhausting chore. Just write. If you don’t, you will be depriving people of your work out of fear, and that would be the biggest shame of all.