working with perfectionism

So often when we sit down to write, we’re plagued by perfectionism. 

We look at the disorganized draft of our work-in-progress and think: how juvenile, how undeveloped, how messy! Surely Barbara Kingsolver or Cormac McCarthy or Sally Rooney never feel this way!

However, the truth is that everyone–yes, even Barbara Kingsolver–starts off with a draft that is sloppy and borderline unreadable. And it’s only through the process of many revisions and input from beta readers and the help of a good editor that a story gets to the level of a published book. 

So, the next time you’re feeling perfectionism creep into your headspace, instead of stewing in self-criticism, try utilizing these three techniques, which I implement frequently when I’m wading through an early draft: 

Listen to published authors talk about their own early drafts. 

Honest author talk is so refreshing! I have yet to hear any author say that their first draft was any good. In fact, many are brutally honest about the quality of their initial attempts. When I’m feeling down about my own work, I love listening to this clip of Newberry-award winning author Kate DiCamillo discussing the state of her first drafts with author Katherine Paterson. 

When struggling with a scene you feel is not good enough, write at the top of the page in all caps: "WORST VERSION OF THIS SCENE.” 

This is one of my favorite ways for bypassing perfectionism in my writing practice. Inevitably, I find myself writing a scene that I simply can’t get a handle on. I’m struggling with the dialogue, which sounds clunky and cliche, and I can’t seem to even figure out where the chapter is headed. Allowing myself to write the “worst version” of this scene frees me up to explore and make mistakes and, most importantly, suspend judgment of my terrible writing–because I’ve already acknowledged that it’s going to be terrible!  

In each successive pass of your story, remind yourself that you only have to make this draft 30% better than the last one. 

In my early days of writing, I would put intense pressure on myself each time I worked on a scene–to make each sentence gorgeous, to make every line of dialogue razor-sharp. It made for very slow and painful progress (and I often ended up having to cut or revise those beautifully polished lines in the next draft, which rendered all that careful work a waste of time). These days, I take a much more casual approach to each draft. By telling myself this draft only has to be 30% better than the last one, I free myself up to write more quickly and authentically–and to actually make progress, rather than grinding to a standstill. 

As you work on your writing this month, try implementing one or more of these techniques and see if it helps you work past perfectionism in your writing process!