Tuesday Tips: Perfection is a Trap

No one will ever accuse me of writing perfect novels.

Today's tip is a caution. 

The pursuit of perfection will stand in the way of your efforts. This issue is one of the big ones that stops some writers from finishing anything. They constantly revise, wanting everything in the first draft to be perfect.

With this mindset, writers cripple themselves. It crippled me for decades. It can be a kind of self-sabotage.

The solution is not difficult:

Give yourself permission to be imperfect. Hammer though your first draft never looking back. Allow yourself to make typos, write a weak paragraph or slow section. Generate the raw materials that will allow you to return and shape what you have made into the best story it can be.

The pursuit of perfection can still cripple you even if you finish your first draft, second draft, third...

There comes a point when you have polished it enough.

Use beta readers and professional editors to take it far enough.

Then let it go.
Finish it.
Publish it.
Move to the next project.

It will never be perfect. And that's OK. Get used to it, because reviewers will let you know.

--Always know, if you got as far as publishing something you are farther ahead that 99%.