Are You Waiting For Perfection?
If you are asking me, I'm guilty as charged! I have been waiting for perfection many times, in fact, too much and way too often. Not good! Perfectionism might be perfect (You see!),😜 but it also could be entirely counterproductive or even destructive.
When it comes to writing, it's the same story again. Guilty as charged! I suffer from perfection disease when it comes to writing, as well. Maybe even the most as it already shows some chronic symptoms. 90 out of 100 times I'd rather not publish the article (yet). And each of those 90 times I have some serious talk with myself.
Image Source: Own derivative work with the image from Pixabay. Credits to qimono for water-drop, used under the CC0 Creative Commons license.
Does this tendency of mine to reach the level of perfection (according to own high standards) makes my writing any better? Well, sometimes, somewhat - yes, but most of the time it just gets me stuck in the middle of something, and my posts stay unpublished.
A few days ago, I came across Margaret Atwood's quote, saying,
If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.
It made me think. This Canadian lady writer "has published seventeen books of poetry, sixteen novels, ten books of non-fiction, eight collections of short fiction, eight children’s books, and one graphic novel, as well as a number of small press editions in poetry and fiction," [1] while I'm still fighting with almost every single post (on Steemit or elsewhere).
Something has to change! I have always been impressed and even envied people who were couraged or crazy enough, or even maybe both, to publish without any complex or second though the stuff I would be embarrassed to read aloud to myself in an empty room. But not them!
They just let it out and then see what will happen. Eventual changes and corrections on the go! Not a big deal for them, but not for me. For me, it seems like an unreachable super-power-skill, I would hardly master even if I practice it until complete exhaustion. But, who knows? I didn't try it. Not yet!
I just started to imagine how it might look like if I go crazy in that direction! My dear fellow Steemians, I honestly don't know what you can expect from me in that case. Anything is possible! But, having in mind Anne Rice's words,
To write something you have to risk making a fool of yourself,
as bloggers and writers, we are in that danger anyway, with or without waiting for perfection.
Therefore, I want to encourage us all to take that risk, write and publish our writings even if it's not as perfect as we would like it to be. To give you some extra wind in your sails, I'm leaving you here a brilliant quote by Octavia E. Butler.
You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.
Image Source: Own derivative work with the image from Pixabay. Credits to mohamed_hassan for paper-background, used under the CC0 Creative Commons license.
1. Citation source: Wikipedia - Margaret Eleanor Atwood
Posted on Wednesday, May 2, 2018
Nice motivational post. outstanding writing skill. And will be increased. I following you and upvoted.
Thank you very much! 🙂
Haha don't worry. Your writing is excellent, it doesn't need to be perfect nor it will ever be. You have your style of writing and don't look how others are writing their blogs. Learn from others, but keep your style, it's good so I don't know why to change it. I mean, you can go wild sometimes, it's always good to experiment :D
I'm kinda easy-going in life, you know people from Split :D, but when I'm doing something that I like to do, I also turn myself into a perfectionist, and sometimes it's annoying. But, as you said, it pushes me to bring best out of me, so I don't mind it :D
But still, I'm new on Steemit and I just started writing so when I'm finished with my post, I'm already happy haha :D
Have a great day and thanks for the encouragement!
hahaha - Thanks!
It's not that I'm worrying about writing or style, but more about making a decision to (finally) publish it. 😉 Slightly different kind of struggle. More often, does the article should be longer or shorter; is it clear enough or not; do I have to add something more or cut out some things, and stuff like that. Although, sometimes is even about writing itself.
You know - women thing - sometimes similar to when standing in front of the full closet and still don't know what to wear (as nothing is good enough). 😜
Haha I got you now... You explained it perfectly with the closet haha ;)
I think the practice of writing is like a foreign language. The more you "speak" it, the more fluent you become. Keep writing . You must be doing something write. You're doing well I'd say. Blessings.
I agree with you, the skill is built through the practice.
And thank you very much for the blessings sent my way!
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valid point @ana-maria perfection dont come overnite. There is an old say..."practice make perfect"...do practice more to reach the sky
It's not only the perfection, sometimes (at least in my case) it's more about being too strict judge to myself.
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