Forget About Perfection in Your Writing
I don’t know about you, but my biggest issue with writing is just getting done with it.
We often hear the word perfection thrown around in writing circles — For or against. My view on the whole debate of ‘how writers should let go of perfectionism’, is that it’s all rubbish.
What most of us consider as perfection is in reality a smokescreen for our fears. You aren’t really striving for perfection; you’re just trying to find a way to get stuck in an endless loop of procrastination.
Those striving for perfection are rare and don’t care about what others think. I’m sorry to say but they aren’t really sitting and reading medium articles. They’re sitting on mountain tops, snatching wisps of clouds to string together into words. Or so I’d like to believe.
But what is perfection in writing? Can you quantify it and assign a figure? Everyone says ‘a sense of perfection’, which implies that it’s a feeling, an emotion. It isn’t about checkboxes. You aren’t running an industrial plant, where perfection can be sought in the flawless execution of each task. You’re trying to create words from thin air.
So when it comes to any form of creation, ‘perfection’ is just a word floating around in our head because we’ve heard it so much. Even talking about it gives it more life and importance. That’s why we need to understand this fallacy and move away from this conversation.
Can you ever get to perfect?
I don’t know if you should even want it. Some of your articles might feel like they’re close to being ‘perfect’ — feel being the keyword. But overall should you even aim for perfection?
Because if you think you’ve achieved perfection, it implies that there is nothing more for you to do. There is no room left for you to grow, nothing for you to learn.
And more often than not, that’s just speaking from a place of ego.
Because to think that you have nothing more to learn is the most egotistical statement to ever make. Any learned man or woman would say that they’re constantly learning and wish they had more hours in a day to consume more information.
Humble yourself and get over yourself. You are not perfect and are never going to be. And that’s exactly how it should be. I don’t want to be perfect; I just want to be slightly better than I used to be.
And that can only be achieved through imperfection.
Try as we may
We live in such a fast-paced world that it feels like we should be doing everything. We should be writing every single day on Medium, on Twitter, on LinkedIn, on Substack.
For in our head that is the ideal path to success. It’s drilled in by the fear that we might be missing out on some opportunity. Some golden crypto-like opportunity that may never come back to us.
And this can take a toll. Unless you’re superhuman, writing on all these platforms every day is unlikely. Which can invariably fill you up with guilt for those delayed and forgotten tasks. It can build and build until you get so discouraged that you just let it all go. You shun every platform, feeling the self-worth plummet.
So instead, just finish your writing and send out an imperfect piece into the universe.
Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t mean you send out your first draft. That’s a big mistake every new writer makes. Figure a process that works for you, but let it culminate in your posting an imperfect piece of writing. Something that might not be great, but good enough.
The exhilaration of completion
When you post your writing, you’re done with it. You have sent it out into the world with all its flaws and imperfections. It’s out there, and out of your mind. Whatever happens, happens. And you can move onto the next thing. The next article. Learn from the current and adapt for the next.
Maybe that’s why I love the freelancer life. When you’re done with a project, you can be truly done with it and look forward to the next. When you’re working in a job, even if you’re done with a project, you still need to come into work the next day. There is no sense of completion, just a constant extension.
And that feeling of completion can be liberating. All the doubts and fears and insecurities that came with that piece of writing, are simply washed away. You’re done. Often you don’t need to make any effort, it just dissipates on its own. And you feel recharged for the next, although it can take a few days.
It also makes you realise how inconsequential and unjustified your doubts were. You’re not writing about politics in a country where you need to fear for your life. You’re just sharing your developing thoughts with the world. Why are you afraid of posting an article, where the worst-case scenario is a bad comment?
Having a process helps
The whole intention of creating a process is that it gets rid of the doubt and the impostor syndrome that you might experience as a writer.
When you create a process, you clear any misgivings that might arise with the blank page or the first draft. Because you know that it will only get better. When you eventually edit, it will get even better. So mentally you know that the first draft is just you, pouring out your thoughts in a stream of consciousness.
Our fear and ‘quest for perfection’ only enter because we think that what we have is not good enough. But turn that into a growth story. Think of every draft as a means to a better article. Think of every article as a means to becoming a better writer. Thus, every article becomes a steppingstone in your journey.
If I think back on my writing career, I know that I’m a better writer than I was ten years back. But I’m not done learning. I know I have a long way to go, and for that I need to keep writing. Even this article is far from perfect. But I need to move past the procrastination, the moments of inaction, the doubt. I need to move past and tell myself that I just need to be better than I am today.
That’s it. Every day, move the needle slightly forward. And that is enough.
