Done Is Better Than Perfect
The Write Stuff: Writing Tips, Tricks & Inspiration
Good morning, writers!
I was reading about perfectionism last night. I confess: I've humble bragged about being a perfectionist. It makes me feel good when an editor tells me my work is "clean" (free from mistakes in grammar, punctuation, and spelling). I like the idea that, if an editor is considering my work alongside someone else's, my clean copy may give me an extra edge. But I learned a couple of things in my reading that made me consider the ways perfectionism has held me back. I am beginning to think that perfectionism has hurt me more than it's helped me.
"Done is better than perfect."
—Sheryl Sandberg
Perfectionism has kept me from finishing writing projects—I can't write it the way it is in my head, so I don't write it at all.
Perfectionism has kept me from starting projects—I recently pitched an essay to Jane Friedman, and she accepted it, and now I'm terrified to start it because I'm afraid it won't live up to the pitch.
Perfectionism has kept me from going as hard or as deep as I can in my writing because what will people think?
Perfectionism has kept me from submitting my work—it's not ready yet, and it may never be.
"Perfectionism is a poison that pretends to be a vitamin."
—Jon Acuff
Perfectionism has kept me from submitting my work to journals that have actually asked me to send them more of my work—if they didn't want the last thing I sent them, then what can I possibly send them that they will want?
Perfectionism has kept me from querying my book—I still worry that it's not quite good enough and that I need to work on it and tweak it "just a little more."
Perfectionism, I'm realizing, is a form of fear and procrastination. It's a form of self-editing my work before I've even started writing. It's a form of self-editing my life so that it's not all it could be. It's a form of self-sabotage.
Perfectionism, I learned, can be a trauma response to being shamed or being told you're not good enough, to the extent you learn "to hide some of yourself to feel good." It can cause you "to be crushed when [your work] isn't received exactly how [you] imagined it would be" and to give up, defeated. Or it can cause you to "completely [pull yourself] out of the game" in order to avoid the risk of failure. (Jo Tucker, Perfectionism as a Trauma Response.)
"Perfectionism is self-abuse of the highest order."
​—Anne Wilson Schaef
Former Facebook COO and founder of the Lean In Foundation Sheryl Sandberg said, "Done is better than perfect." I think this gets to the heart of the problem with perfectionism: it keeps us from doing the work. It makes us delay starting, thinking we have to wait until inspiration strikes or until the right time in our lives or until we have a fully fleshed out and perfect idea. It makes us delay putting our work out there for feedback until we feel our draft is perfectly polished. It makes us delay submitting our work to journals or magazines or agents or publishers. It makes us spend hours going down the research rabbit hole instead of doing the writing.
Today, I want you to let go of the idea of writing something perfect. I want you to do the work without holding back or worrying about what others will think of it. I want you to meet your goal today, without judging the words you write. I'm going to do the same.
Wishing you a joyful day filled with wonder, warmth, and words. Imperfect words, but words nonetheless.
Leanne