Thread: Perfectionism

I have this problem where I write something, then reread it, and throw it away. If I manage to squeeze out a few thousands words, I go back and read them and decide they aren't worth publishing. I'm a pretty harsh judge of what I read. I either like it a lot or I hate it. so I figure I might as well hold myself to the same standards.

Does anyone else have this problem? It's not writer's block, I have plenty of ideas. It's not a lack of time, school and work aren't too pressing at the moment. It's that I can't seem to be happy with anything I write.

How does one get past the egomania of perfectionism? When you hear horror stories of a book tanking and the author never being able to publish again without a new pen name?

Originally Posted by Neuroaxiom

I go back and read them and decide they aren't worth publishing.

This is where you can start. Write for yourself, without considering whether or not it's publishable material. Finish it, set it aside for a while no matter how horrible it is, and start writing something else. You can always go back to any of these stories and edit them for publishing. When you do edit, there will be always something you find distasteful or amateur, but there's always something spectacular at the same time.

Very few people write a best-seller/good book in their first draft.

Neuro, I can't tell you how many times I've read and reread my novel before I finally decided it was finished. I could probably read through it right now and make more revisions. Imagine for a minute that Stephen King or Tolkien or any accomplished author had my same situation: they could pick up one of their books today, and still make revisions. What you need to separate yourself is confidence. As far as I can tell, accomplished authors have confidence.

Do what Mike said: write for yourself. Random things. When you finally find something you're "happy" about, run with that. Once you start putting your work out there, the feedback will help guide you to where you want to be.

Tripp Dakota

I have the same problem Neuro and at the moment am feeling like I will never finish anything.
I agree with what Mike said, just write, let it flow. Do not re-read it before you think you have finished. I have started doing this and have alot of good things come from it, then it is just a matter of getting the flow.
Try not to be too critical (easily said I know! I am exactly the same, i write a couple of pages, read it then either change it completely or throw it away as I do not think it is good enough).
Just try writing, work the general storyline out in your head and follow that path.

@Mike,

Thanks for the advice. I'm giving it a go today.

@Tripp,

Likewise 100%

@Luckystars1987,

It's good to hear from a similarly suffering individual. Good luck on your projects!!!

I find that I hate my work until I've shown it to someone. I'm just growing out of that habit now, as I write my novel which no one has seen any of yet, but getting an audience reaction can be a real confidence booster and help you see what you're doing good that you're being too critical of.

I think like most writers I suffer the perfectionist's curse of second guessing, and though sometimes it makes me feel like a work is trash, I remind myself that that's simply the emotion and that given enough drafts and polish a work will shine. Many of the major writers felt the same way. I think the trick is controlling that doubt, letting it drive us to rip our pieces apart, but not letting it disable us.

I used to suffer from the same problem. Anything I wrote I would trash offhand upon coming back to it as it didn't stand up to the standards I had for myself. Then I got over it by simply improving as a writer to the point I could stand to read my own stuff.

This is a brutal thing to be going through, but my biggest piece of advice for you is to NEVER trash you writing. Even if it isn't something that is 'publishable' level, there's still some redeeming qualities to it, otherwise you wouldn't have written it to begin with. So save it, and maybe revisit it a much later date to see what is worth keeping, and what isn't.

Neuroaxiom

I guess if you're going to suffer from an '-ism' it may as well be perfectionism. I've heard many people say it doesn't matter what you write, so long as you write something, and I have always taken this to mean subject matter AND quality of writing. I found this a hard thing to do, especially writing on a laptop, when the delete button is so handily placed. I wrote the first 10,000 words of my novel in long hand and, believe me, I wasn't half as willing to dismiss it on the whim of the writing not being up to scratch, all that inspiration, time, thought, creativity; gone. Not a chance.

My method, and I find it works, is to get down a body of work, either a partial or whole story, and that is my block of wood; and then starts the carving, the etching, the detail, and finally the polishing. I posted my first work on here last week; written over a couple of weeks in November, a couple of edits and a very partial rewrite later I put it away for a month. I read it a couple of weeks ago, didn't like it, and so changed small parts and did around four more edits, and here's the bit I like; paragraph by every damn paragraph, line by evil line, I tightened it as much as I could - why use three words when one will do, swap commas around to change the flow, get rid of unnecessary adjectives - until I eventually thought it worthy of publishing. I was gobsmacked by the positive feedback I got. The point is six weeks ago it was the same story, but not a patch on the final version.

Look at works by the great painters, and ask how many layers of paint are on there, you can't see what they looked like originally; the sketches, the original outlines, the changes of colour, changes of position, of light etc. etc.

To give an example, just because it's the first one to pop into my head, Stephen King's 'Under The Dome' was a rewrite of a novel he tried to write in both the 1970s and '80s, and now contains only the first chapter from the original manuscript. This is an extreme example, but if even the most successful can't get it down first time, what chance do we more mortals have?

Just don't let those stories get away, write down that first draft and nail it to the paper; then do what you will with it.

Good luck, I'm off to decide whether the title of my last story needs one comma, or two.

Scott

Originally Posted by Neuroaxiom

I have this problem where I write something, then reread it, and throw it away. If I manage to squeeze out a few thousands words, I go back and read them and decide they aren't worth publishing. I'm a pretty harsh judge of what I read. I either like it a lot or I hate it. so I figure I might as well hold myself to the same standards.

Nothing is perfect. I think most people are harsh critics of their own work. Maybe instead of crumpling a piece of paper and tossing it in the trash bin, you should file it away some where, then look at it later with fresh eyes. Think of it as a person who needs nurturing in order to mature. Have compassion and patience with it.

I have a compulsion with making sure my sentences are understood, no room for confusion. Something like this:

John purchased a book at the bookstore a few months back. He really enjoyed it - the book he bought at the bookstore, I mean.

Old engineering maxim - perfection is the enemy of good enough.

I posted that once before and everyone, or at least many, thought I meant you should not try to make your work as good as possible.

If you take that maxim to mean that sloppy work is okay, then you misunderstand the message. The craftsman with sufficient skill and experience can turn out good copy straightaway with little fiddling about. Those old words 'clean clear simple direct and strong' should guide you as you strive to make your copy precise and concise, and whether someone's idea of 'perfection' is reached is beside the point.

The fiction writer has more leeway, but the same principles hold true. Once the news report, the essay, the poem the short story, or the novel says what the writer intended, then it's good enough, and further tampering will probably damage it.

Neuro,

Welcome to the club!

As virtually everyone who has answered has said, we all feel the same about our writing...it just ain't good enough. Until it is. I'm currently on page 93, re- re- re- re- reediting (and you can truthfully add about 16 more re-'s) a novel I finished in 2003. The good news is that I think I've finally got it polished enough to present to the world! (I think we all know about the other news....)

So, to reiterate what all the other smart and experienced people on this thread have said, don't chuck it. Just set it to one side and come back to it when you can read it with different eyes. You will find something worthwhile in it.

And don't forget to have fun. This is supposed to be fun!

No, we don't all feel the same. To quote myself, 'The craftsman with sufficient skill and experience can turn out good copy straightaway with little fiddling about'.

I write, I do a fast line edit, and job done.

We also don't all have the same level of experience as you do, Garza. I imagine that when you've been in journalism for as long as you have your edits as well as your knowledge of what is good are practically instinctive.

Neuro, in a sense your work will never be good enough to please you unless you're a much more forgiving soul than most. If you're going to write you have to make your peace with that fact and realize that your readers are overall not as harsh on your writing as you are. (excluding a few who are critical for the sake of it)

Originally Posted by Foxee

Neuro, in a sense your work will never be good enough to please you unless you're a much more forgiving soul than most. If you're going to write you have to make your peace with that fact and realize that your readers are overall not as harsh on your writing as you are. (excluding a few who are critical for the sake of it)

Well said. Maybe being more forgiving of other people's work could help, as well. Try seeing the good points.