I’ve been learning lately that many of the psychological roadblocks I throw up in front of my writing have their origin in perfectionism. Now, I’ve never really thought of myself as a perfectionist. I don’t have the cleanest house on the block, my personal appearance is best described as rumpled, and my cooking as well as my parenting is of the “good-enough-is-good-enough” variety. Maybe it’s possible to be a perfectionist in one area and not in others.
Here are some questions to ask yourself. In your writing:
- Is good enough is never enough?
- Are your goals set unrealistically high? (E.g., five rejections + one acceptance = misery)
- Are you unwilling to be a beginning? Are you impatient with the time it takes to learn your craft?
- Do you procrastinate? Do you have “good” reasons for constantly procrastinating?
- Do you feel like an imposter?
If your answer to any of these questions is yes, you might appreciate this article by Steven Hendlin, Ph.D., adapted from his book, When Good Enough is Never Enough: Escaping the Perfection Trap. I found it over at Backspace.
Filed under: writing
I think it’s quite possible to be a perfectionist in one area and not another, even within the same field. I accept my faults and shortcomings as a guitarist, for instance, but as a songwriter, nothing I ever do is good enough and I put off the work that it takes to get better. As you can imagine, I’m much better at one than the other. Take a guess which!