You’re a perfectionist? These eight mantras will get your writing done.
Perfectionism is an enemy of getting any writing done. Aspiring writers spend entire lifetimes tweaking and preparing to write the perfect book. Many never end up publishing that book.
Here are eight mantras that helped me publish my latest book. Try saying them to yourself when you get stuck.
- “There’s more where that came from.” For a long time I was held back by the mentality that my next piece of work had to be big. This was actually made worse by the success of my first book. I now try to take on the mentality that there’s always more. I can write today, and I can write tomorrow. I don’t have to treat my writing like it’s drops of liquid gold that must be salvaged. There’s always more.
- “I can always improve this.” The blank page is scary. For me, this is caused by the image I hold in my head of what I’ll put on that page. But getting from blank page to that vision is a leap. It’s better to put something on the page, and remember that I’ll edit it later. Or, more often, I’ll completely rewrite it.
- “It’s okay to say it again.” If you feel like you only get one chance to say something, you make it harder to say. You spend time thinking it over in your head, and you don’t get a chance to react to it on the page. If you aren’t afraid to write something twice, it makes it easier to write it the first time. If you do write it again, you’ll find you say it better than before.
- “Can I say this in a different way?” If I keep my fingers on the keys wondering what to write for too long, I’ll get frozen. Following the previous mantra, I give myself permission to say something I’ve said before. But I find a way to say it differently.
- “It’s better than you think it is.” Perfectionists are the harshest critics of their own work. Your ego wants to nitpick your writing because it keeps you from publishing it. If you don’t publish it, it doesn’t fail, and you don’t have to come up with something new. I remind myself that my writing is better than I think it is. Sometimes my readers don’t agree, and I learn how to make it better next time. But most of the time my readers do agree, and my work does better than I thought it would.
- “You are a bricklayer.” Writing is a job. You can spend a lifetime working on your word selection and pacing and storytelling, but ultimately you are laying down words like bricks. I find it helpful to think of myself as a bricklayer. I’m sure I’ve learned some skills in my moments of perfectionism that come through in my work without me thinking about them. But the bricklayer mentality helps me actually get the work done.
- “There’s always tomorrow.” Sometimes you have a hard day. You may wake up feeling great, but find that your writing is terrible. It doesn’t matter. All that matters was that you wrote. I find that if I string enough days in a row, eventually I have good days.
- “You won’t live forever.” This directly contradicts the previous mantra, but it has a different purpose. If you forget that your life is short, you put off writing. I find that remembering I’ll die gives me the urgency to do my work while I’m here.
Perfectionism starts in your mind. If you say these mantras in your mind, you can change your mind, and overcome that perfectionism. Try these out, and see if they work. Do you have your own mantras? I’d love to hear them in the comments.
My new book is The Heart to Start. I believe you have something to offer the world, and this book will help you make it real. Buy it on Amazon, because the world needs your art »
"It takes what it takes"
I always say this to myself when I wish to make my first draft itself golden, like a piece of fine art. For many of us, many a times it won't work out like that, right? It would stop me from starting itself. So, I let myself start off by saying, although its a struggle, it takes so many rewrites it would take. It takes what it takes.
Great post!! Thank you for sharing. This perfectionism kills me everyday, to pour anything on to the paper. I think we need people like you. I am eager to read your book. These should be on our walls.
I REALLY like that one. I find myself reminding myself of something similar. I often feel the urge to get something done quickly. When I remind myself that it's just going to be a lot of work, I'm less stressed and my work is better.
This comes as timely for me as I’ve been contemplating giving Steemit a thrash, though find myself discouraged by some of the things I’m finding about how tough decent content creators are finding it to gain a foothold. I’ve spent much of my adult life crafting two large books (one in particular) to within an inch of their life, neither of which have been published. I have no regrets because that’s the sort of books they are and ... well anyway, long story. The point here is that your post brings home to me that if I’m going to put out frequent content I can’t afford to be TOO pernickety about every last word, or as you put it “treat my writing like it’s drops of liquid gold that must be salvaged”. Going off this topic and back to the question of how worthwhile Steemit is as a platform, I’ve looked at your blog and will be checking out your @Ben interview and podcast with Charlie Hoehn. Again, I have to say, pretty discouraging to see the paltry rewards for posts you are doubtless enough of a pro to have turned out quite quickly but which in any case are vastly superior to some of the stuff I’ve seen raking in the shekels, no doubt by shrewd use of bots or however it is some people game the system. My initial thought was that by posting what I regard to be good quality content, daily, on a wide range of (mostly) musical topics, doing some constructive networking, and maybe picking up #steemitgigs along the way, I would in time be able to generate a modest income stream. Looks like I was wrong and that the only way of doing so would be to spend more time turning the complexities of the ecosystem to account than providing content people might want to read. You obviously find it a worthwhile string to your bow, so I’ll go away now and listen to that podcast. Did I say thanks for the post? I’ll be bearing it in mind if I do give it a try. I have one advantage – my dad was a bricklayer.
UPDATE: Ah, I find your detailed "Writer's guide to earning", which I'll be giving the fine toothcomb treatment - thanks for providing it. Already looks like your rewards might not be so meagre after all - they would certainly do me nicely. :o)
you should make a guide to overcome procrastination.
He'll get around to it in due course I'm sure.