Tag Archives: perfect

Save it for the angels.

By DAVID E. BOOKER

Don’t get slowed down by the idea, notion, goal, belief that what you write has to be perfect. Perfection is an illusion and a way to subjectively enthrall yourself to a writer’s block from which you will never be free. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be working to improve your writing talent and skills. It just means that you can expend a nearly infinite amount of time and energy getting your story, poem, essay, novel, article perfect and never be there.

Here are three things to remember if you feel you have to have it perfect before you go on.

1) No matter how perfect your writing is, you may still face rejection. For example, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was turned down 121 times. In other words, perfect does not guarantee publication.

2) Study long, study wrong. Many years ago when my father was teaching me to play cribbage, if I took too long to decide which card to play next, he would say, “Study long, study wrong.” While this may have reflected some of his impatience with my timidity, it is also a good piece of advice to keep in mind. Often it is the after getting something on paper that you can adjust it to make it better, not before.

3) Resistance is futile. It is true that, as Mark Twain said, the difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and lightning bug. Yet, it is also true that rewriting is writing, too, and the resistance you put up into not moving forward because you don’t have the right word or words will often times lead more toward futility than fruition. Better to start with the lightning bug and work you up to the right flash than do nothing and continue to curse the darkness of having written nothing.

None of this is meant to say your first draft should be the one your rush to publication. Very, very few writers have that level of mastery. But if you don’t get it done, you will never get it better.