There are times when seeking perfection is vital, such as life and death situations. Yet, for most of us, seeking perfection in everyday activities, especially writing, can lead to frustration and non-achievement.
Consider an example from the world of music that applies directly to the world of writing.
David was a horn player who seldom played in public. He never thought he was good enough. He’d spend hours practicing each day but seldom seemed satisfied with the result.
His musician friends tried to encourage him to appear with them at local gigs or open-mike nights.
He always declined, saying, “I’m not good enough yet.”
One night he went to hear an excellent jazz horn player named Brother Klive at a local club.
After the show, David went up to the musician to tell him how much he enjoyed it and asked him for advice on how to perfect his technique. David told him how hard he was practicing getting ready to be good enough to perform.
Brother Klive asked him how many gigs he was doing. David said he wasn’t good enough to perform in public yet.
“There’s your mistake,” said the musician. “You can’t get better only by practicing. You’ve got to play before real audiences every chance you get. When I was a bartender at a local jazz club, I used to have my horn right behind the bar. On slow afternoons, I’d pull it out and start playing for the few people sitting around the bar. Sometimes they appreciated it, and sometimes they didn’t. Either way, I began to learn what worked and what didn’t.”
“My advice to you, David, is to play that thing in front of real people. Audiences not only listen, but they help you perfect your technique. They give instant feedback. You can see it in their faces. Practicing is good, but it’s not enough. You need to perform in front of people.”
David listened and took that advice seriously. Soon he was performing in every venue he could find, mostly unpaid.
He eventually went on to become a seasoned and working musician.
Apply David’s example to your writing.
Most first drafts suck. That’s why we edit, rewrite, polish, and finally publish. That’s also why there are professional editors.
Nevertheless, many of us are hesitant to finally hit the publish button and send our work into the world.
Many struggling writers are the victims of perfectionism.
Perfectionism is not the legitimate seeking of the best you can achieve. Rather, it is the feeling that you are inadequate and not up to the job. It is a habit of always getting ready to get ready, seeking some impossible ideal of perfection when the writing task at hand simply needs to get done as best you can.
The problem with perfectionism is that it places such a burden of proof on your shoulders that it can prevent you from taking any action for fear of never being good enough. For a writer, this is a recipe for never finishing and never publishing.
For instance, one of the reasons that some people have a difficult time learning new activities is that they place undue stress on getting everything perfect the first time. Most of the time it can’t be done.
You must give yourself permission to be lousy — at the beginning stages of your writing. Then, slowly and steadily, you get better.
Another aspect of perfectionism is thinking that other writers are better than you are. You become fearful of any comparison.
You work to get it perfect before letting anyone see it. That is fine for some things, but published writing requires you to go with what you have, imperfect as you think it is. You need the input of readers.
Another hazard of perfectionism is the taking of so many writing courses essentially to avoid action and the possibility of failure. For example, when I was beginning my short-lived career in real estate, I kept signing up for special courses that were offered. Unfortunately, I wasn’t selling any real estate because I was too busy learning how to be perfect.
Perfectionism is not the state of trying to be your best. It is a state of denial, trying to achieve impossible perfection rather than a possible outcome.
You should strive for perfection in the long term but achieve the best that is possible for you in the short term.
For now, write without fear of making mistakes. You can put on your editorial hat later to fix any errors.
It’s time to finish that piece of writing you started but never published.
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Ken is the author of seven books designed to help you live the best life possible and flourish in this ever-changing creator economy. He is also a contributing editor for the Matrix Gazette.
