Lorraine Thompson at MarketCopywriter Blog talked last week about perfection as a time sink. What I love about her post is that she’s tapped into the most common fear we as freelancers have – not getting it right the first time. Her reminder is that the writing process is just the first step, that we need to get used to writing and letting go, and that the angst and overworking of it all is a sign of imperfection, not perfection. It’s why I love Lorraine – she’s hit it right on the head.
When I worked on staff I had to write three or four articles a month. I remember one month a colleague from the sister publication stopping in my doorway with a problem. He’d scored the cover story. He was wringing his hands and fretting about his first cover in four years. I won’t say the fretting didn’t contain a bit of showing off – it may have been the basis of the entire conversation – but he was clearly agitated and worried. He said to me “How do you do it? How do you write so many cover stories and not freak out?”
My answer: “I sit my arse down and write.”
The point to him was I didn’t work myself into a froth, I didn’t worry it like a loose thread, and I sure as hell didn’t stand in a doorway and waste time moaning about it. It was a job. It didn’t matter to me where the story landed – I was paid to write. Fact is it was rare when I knew for sure the story would be on the cover. I didn’t really care. Each job was my personal cover story – I jumped into them all like they were the neatest topic on the planet.
But my colleague represented a fair number of writers I’ve known. The guy who had my job before me at the magazine had an entire month to write one story. Sitting there amid a wealth of industry contacts and more talented editing than a person could wish for, he would stare at the monitor for hours, crafting (if they were lucky) one sentence a day. It was too painful for him to finalize the thought. He eventually gave it up because the pressure to do it perfectly was too much. But that pressure never came from the editors – it came from himself.
I thank a great editorial staff and a massive pile of work for my ability to separate from the words. I’m a first-draft-and-out-the-door writer. I don’t dwell. I write it, spell check it, read it through once, then send it off. If I did anything more, I’d never be satisfied.
But there’s the thing – it’s not me I need to satisfy. It’s the client. Same with you. The client will have changes sometimes just because the client can change something. Some clients accept your words verbatim, but that’s rare. So why are you stressing over every syllable?
It’s lack of trust, isn’t it? You don’t trust yourself to be as talented as you are. Someone somewhere may have chastised you for not getting it right when in fact there are so many factors that could contribute to that “not right” result that have nothing to do with your talent.
So when was the last time you had troubles letting go? How hard is it for you? What’s your process for finalizing in your head the first draft?
9 responses to “How Perfect is Too Perfect?”
Fiction always needs more drafts than non-fiction, I find. Non-fiction is harder, in some ways to write, but there's more prep work involved, and more material right at hand.
My personal experience with those who wring their hands and moan that they can't get anything out the door because they're "perfectionists" really means they've got high levels of narcissim. You're human, so you won't be perfect. EVER. Get over it. Do the best you can and move on. If it needs fixing, fixing. If the other party is happy with it, on to the next thing.
Oh, man, try working with lawyers. When I was practicing law, there were partners who'd redo and redo briefs up until an hour or two before the deadline for filing.
The only thing that stopped those lawyers from revising and revising was a deadline they couldn't move. Few, if any, of the changes probably made any difference in the end product. And imagine the cost to a client of several hours or even a full day of silly word-changing.
What self-absorption and lack of control, I always thought.
I try to read articles several times. If I can, I make sure one of those times is first thing in the morning after getting a good night's sleep.
Then I'm done. I don't fuss much with articles. Perhaps I'm lazy. Or maybe I'm not crazy. Whatever it is, I'm fine with it!
I've never understood why some writers freak about cover stories. Don't they want their non-cover stories to be great, too? Of course, as a freelancer I usually only found out mine was the cover story when the issue came out. I write for special sections within one of my regular markets, so there's no cover, but for those I generally know when I'm working on a lead story.
I tend to start by working up a very loose outline. Calling it an outline is a disservice to real outlines. It's a distinctly un-glorified list of the salient points I want to make. I assign each one of those a number, then I find the best quotes to fit those points, and figure out appropriate transitions. I write it all out, then edit-edit-edit until it's as close to the assigned length as I can manage. About nine times out of 10, there are no major changes to my copy when it hits print.
I do admit to taking greater pains when writing my first piece for a new market.
I heartily agree with Devon's comments regarding perfectionism & narcissism.
Fair or not, when colleagues describe themselves as perfectionists, what I hear is "I'm extremely impressed with my own abilities, and I'm going to use this mythical pursuit of perfection as an excuse to miss every deadline."
On a related note, I think the answer for self-doubt is to embrace the collaborative nature of almost all professional writing. I'm going to produce the best possible copy I can, and I'm going to treat your edits/ suggestions not as complaints or criticisms, but rather as an opportunity to make the final product as close to perfect as we can get it — together.
OK, I'd write more, but I've got a drum circle & a round of "Kumbaya" to get back to … 🙂
AARGH…You caught me! I've also heard that perfectionism is a sign of a narcissist–makes me ashamed of myself. I know I shouldn't care about it (whatever "it" is that day" is done perfectly, as long as it is done well.
But…once again I'm caught in the perfectionist trap. I'm designing my new website for my new freelance business and have wasted, I don't want to confess how much time (one month!) teaching myself to use Illustrator like a pro so that my website looks like I spent $20,000 hiring a fancy site designer to put up my site. Really stupid, I know. Mea Culpa.
So, you see what happens when I just dash off a post (above). Totally messed up my punctuation! 🙂
Well, sometimes writers are just too attached to their works that criticism about their writings are also equivalent to an attack to their personality. Thus, the need to be perfect…
I like the idea of letting go though. A few writers just write and write regardless of grammar and technicalities…and when they have let it go…that's when they go back and edit.
Narcissistic – I love it. I think in the case I quoted, that was true. Definitely!
Gabriella, I think that's sensible. Read it once, maybe twice. Beyond that, let go. Editors have different styles and who's to say they're not going to change it up entirely?
Paula, I never got that, either. It's a story. It's just as important as any other story you've written. My goal always has been to get into the story and bring out the best in it. I don't care where it lands. I remember a client once saying "It's going to be on the cover, so congratulations!" I had to feign excitement. At that point I'd had a ton of covers. All I cared about was if the story was accepted by the readers.
Hugh, now I'm swaying and humming…thanks. 😉 I couldn't agree more – writing and editing are collaborative. I can remember just one instance where I was totally frustrated with the editor and it's because the editing sucked the very life out of every sentence but four in a huge article. I'm all for changing things to fit the readership and the voice, but if you're an editor and you're rewriting the stories, you're either overthinking or you're in love with your own voice.
Lisa, it's okay. You're among friends. 🙂 This is a no-fear zone. Punctuation issues don't count in casual conversations here.
CFD, totally true. I've had some rather unfortunate encounters with writers who took my editorial suggestions like I was attacking their lineage. They were the writers I didn't give follow-up assignements to.
I have to constantly remind myself to cut the apron strings on my "babies." And at work we have a saying that usually keeps us from over-obsessing: "Don't let perfect get in the way of good."