Sure perfection exists. It's in telling the tale only in the way that you can. . .but do it honestly.
I went to art school and saw and knew many creative types. On occasion I have been a bit of many of these types myself. Some learn one narrow thing and are so stuck with perceived success that they are afraid to try anything else. Some have so grand ideas that anything they try to DO never matches the vague idea they dream of that they get nithibg done. Some truck ahead with mediocre output. But keep trucking. Often masters have a big part of this in their blood. My take: miles count. Worrying about larger than life output is going to reduce your output. Forget it. Just work. Quality will follow. Passion and talent are fuel for putting the hours. And fuel to come back even when you don't feel like it. World is full of geniuses who haven't done crap. Don't be one.
I’m afraid I missed in what capabilities do you feel you’re a perfectionist. For instance, a perfect diamond makes a piss-poor screwdriver. If you’re a perfectionist in grammar, then learn how to turn it off when you write your first draft. If you’re a perfectionist in plot tension and character building, then write on.
I don't think perfection really exists because so many people have their own ideas of what is perfect. If you go on Amazon and look up some of the most popular, loved books there will be tons of people giving one star and being very negative. It wasn't good enough for them. Most of the time we feel things are good enough for ourselves because we actually have other people in mind. Your not really thinking "is this good enough for me?" but "Will others read this?". I think you just have to get over other people and their opinions.
What are you doing to reach this state of perfection? Are you reading a book a week? Are you taking classes? I'm not saying you have to take classes, but I am a big believer in education and that such things do elevate our abilities. Reading is a no brainer. The more someone reads the better they'll write. It's not hard to tell a reader from a nonreader by looking at their writing. Just writing the same way you have and hoping it gets better isn't likely to produce results very quickly if at all. There is also revision to keep in mind. I think revision is often more work. I edit as I write and rework things along the way, but this doesn't skip the big step and necessary step of revision. First drafts are never going to be perfect. I don't believe that they have to or should be shit, but they're just never going to be perfect. Writing doesn't work that way. I do think it's possible to write a perfect story. I've read many stories I would call perfect. If you want to reach that level, you have to put in the work. The real work. Invest in yourself and in your writing. Perfection doesn't just happen. It requires a lot more work than just okay. If you're thinking about writing all the time and still don't like your writing, maybe you need a different approach. But I can't really understand the aim for perfection when it really doesn't seem like you're close to where you want to be. So, just ask yourself what you're going to do about it. I think that's the first step.
Perfect is the siren song, and therefore out of reach. For now. If you want to get near, you've got to work for it. Lots. Read. Write. Take classes. Reach out to critiquers. Critique others. Research. Become a member of the community of people who know background for the story you want to write. And never give up. Perfect doesn't happen in a day. It doesn't happen if you only talk about it. A lot of people get stuck on talking about their perceived end product. Don't be one of them. Think what you want to be able to do, what you need to make happen before that. Make a plan. And then do, no matter how long it takes. Spoiler “Hope” is the thing with feathers - By Emily Dickinson “Hope” is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all - And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - And sore must be the storm - That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm - I’ve heard it in the chillest land - And on the strangest Sea - Yet - never - in Extremity, It asked a crumb - of me.
Honestly, I dont really think about it. The only times it comes up for me is when I get a rejection. Then that little voice in my head pipes up "its because you suck, thats why." But then i push it down and keep on at it. Its like looking at a painting... you may not get it, or like it, or not think its any good.... but then it ends up in a national gallery with critical appraise. on the other hand, there might be a piece that you absolutely love, that inspires you, and stirs up emotions in you... and the piece ends up being "trash." I dont know what i'm blabbing on about, lol. I just know that I feel like we all, as artists, writers, and people, have that need to be perfect and have those little voices that tell us we arent. Passion is never giving up despite those voices and feelings.
You can't ever be perfect. You'll never write a single thing that everyone in the world will love. No one can. You just have to keep writing and keep getting better. When the majority of people who read your stuff like it, that's progress. Progress is the most you can do, and hopefully, at some point, your progress will lead you to publishing or whatever outcome you're looking for.
What's to deal with? You're exactly where you need to be. You need to do two things: 1) Writer, however well you can, in this moment. 2) NEVER quit seeking perfection. Anything less than that is just pretending like you're interested in being a professional writer.
Not so long ago, I wanted to be a singer. Let me rephrase that. I was obsessed, infatuated, every word under that category, with singing (i'd spend around four hours a day practicing). It got to the point where I was no longer doing it out of love for it, but in desperate pursuit of being good at it. It took some time- precisely half my life- to realise that I couldn't sing, and was never going to be a famous singer. When I finally let go of that dream, it was such a relief. I still sing, I love doing it, but I know I'm shit at it and, honestly, that's fine with me. But now the same is happening again. With writing. I'm obsessed with it; it distracts me from all my responsibilities, makes me angry when it's not working for me, and can even ruin my day if it isn't good enough. Now what? I have no desire to ever give up on writing; it's a way to translate all my ideas (of which there are a lot) into words, but I can't tell if it's worth the stress it causes me. It's easy enough to tell myself to stop overthinking, to let myself write badly, but fear of disappointing myself holds me back. Tell me any of you have been stuck in this rut before.
That's a hard one to answer. Personally, I think everyone should be a writer It's humanising, and gives a sense of purpose etc. I suppose, as with alcohol or anything else, the point to consider stopping would be if it is having a powerful negative effect on your life...
Well, I "gave up" once. I did think it would only be a break, however I had no idea if it would be a short break, or several decades long. I was making no progress, I was stressed and constantly depressed about how unsuccessful I was, and I felt I'd be happier if I just stopped trying to write. There was also a lot of other things going on in my life. It was a great choice for me. I had been unsuccessfully trying to complete a story (in earnest) for five or so years and it just wasn't happening. It was effecting my mental health. I took a three years off. Just completely wiped the goal from my mind despite it being one of the main parts of my identity before. This year I finally picked it back up and I am absolutely astonished by how different my experience is now. I'm actually writing regularly, I'm growing in skill, and I actually finished something! Well, the first draft but I'll gladly take it. Other than being at a different place in life (and mentally), I also changed my outlook when getting back into writing. I used to look a great masters and try to mimic writing some "great american, coming of age novel". At some point I started reading self published romance on Kindle and I felt confident that some of the stories I could match in skill. Popular stories! Of course there are other factors at play (marketing etc). However, it was the first time I had confidence in my abilities. I realized the type of things I actually enjoy writing (urban fantasy/paranormal romance) instead of what I thought I was "supposed" to write. Now that I've been regularly writing a while again, I feel even more confident and very happy. I've still got a ways to go, but I'm actually growing and most importantly enjoying myself and feeling good about myself. Writing is now improving my life instead of causing me pain.
I made it 110K into a a sequel to my first novel out, and almost everyday of I went to group I complained about it being a slog to keep writing. Lady J said that maybe it was time to let it go, and work on something new. While not easy to hear after managing to pound out so much of the extending story line, I am glad I moved on to other things. I don't think anyone will be missing out on that kinda ultimate conclusion to my first novel, but I know I feel much better just keeping it on my hard-drive and working on something that I can enjoy writing.
Give up what? Writing or trying to get published? I suppose the simple answer is that you should quit that which does not bring you joy or benefit you in some way (it's no secret that I hate my job but it pays the bills). If it's making you miserable then you should quit writing but that wouldn't be my first recommendation. Personally, I would say you need to change your approach to writing. As you said, it's easy enough to tell yourself to stop overthinking and to allow yourself to write badly. That would have been my first suggestion. Your singing turned from a labor of love to just a labor and now you're having a similar problem with writing. I don't mean to sound rude but it sounds like the problem is with you and not your activities. I don't presume to know you but just from this post alone, you sound like something of a perfectionist and that can be a good thing so long as it doesn't ruin the joy you have for the things you want to perfect. So at the risk of sounding like an echo, I think you need to stop overthinking and just allow yourself to write badly (if you even are writing badly and not just being too hard on yourself). Find the joy in writing and remember that if you're going to do it, even if you want to do it for money, that you need to do it with passion. I'm afraid that something like this can't be given a definite answer so this sorry excuse for a pep talk will just have to do. If you can quit, then quit. If you can't quit, then you're a writer.
I don't know if it was just a slip in the typing, or whether it means more, but you said you gave up because you realised you were never going to be a famous singer. I find it difficult to believe that if you worked so hard, practiced every day, etc, that you 'can't sing.' I also love to sing. In fact, it was my love of Scotland's traditional music that brought me to Scotland in the first place. However, I derived pleasure in simply participating in the singarounds, holding my own when it came to taking my turn, etc. Being famous was never a goal. I just wanted to help carry the tradition. It's possible to be good at something and never achieve fame. It's also VERY possible to achieve fame with very mediocre skills and products. (Examples of that are all around us.) Fame isn't down to you, really. It's down to being in the right place at the right time with the right schtick and the right people to buy into it. It's perfectly possible to turn out a product that appeals to some people, however. Even a small circle. Just don't be hard on yourself, or set 'fame' or 'widespread acceptance' as your goal. You say you have story ideas you want translated into writing. Just focus on doing that. Even if your product is shitty (which I very much doubt, judging by the standard of your post here) it can certainly be improved. Nobody has the same exact ideas that you have. So focus on your uniqueness rather than universal acceptance. Study your craft and create the most unique product you can. You might become famous doing it. Or not. Try not to think in terms of 'I want to be famous at something,' but rather 'I want to do something I enjoy and learn to improve my skills.' Just a little tip: I reckon every writer reads their own stuff, on occasion, and thinks ...omg, this is really banal/boring/awful/yikes/why am I doing this? But that moment will pass. So will the corollary: I'm a genius; this is really fantastic writing and can't possibly be improved. That, too, will pass!
I agree. I think we all have those moments when we have a negative reaction to what we have put on the page. That is when you have to just laugh, and then figure out a way, or get help in fixing it so it isn't as banal/boring/awful/yikes/why am I doing this. That is where the Workshop comes in.
That’s so wonderful to hear. I think, for me, I’ll instead stop pushing myself to make work to impress others- I’m sixteen for God’s sakes, I should just enjoy it! And if I find that writing doesn’t work with my personality at the moment, maybe I will push it aside for a while. Thank you so much for the advice. (i also do like a good paranormal romance myself, so send them my way )
Oh, trust me, I wasn’t practicing very well. Singing Sweater Weather over and over wasnt doing wonders for my voice. As for the writing, I think this post really hit hard. Similarly to my seeking fame when it came to singing, what I want to do with my writing is show people. I want it to be at a standard where I could write fan fiction, post it online, and have people really enjoy it. I realise now that’s too much pressure on me. I am a slow moving writer, which means I’m still in the stage where I need to secure my style, find out what works and doesn’t work for me. And most of all, have some damn fun with it! How can I expect my readers to enjoy something that I hated writing? Anyway. Thank you so much for the advice. I’m going to detach myself from the piece I’m working on and take a more casual approach instead. xxx
I'd say try to detach yourself from your goal of 'reaching readers. ' Instead, just write your story. I told myself when I was first writing (and I didn't know if I could do it) that I would write honestly—by this I mean I wouldn't care what other people thought of it. I would write MY story the way I wanted to write it, and see what I would end up with. I told myself I never needed to show it to anybody if I didn't want to. In fact, the only person I admitted anything to was my husband (we shared the computer when I first started.) I had to tell him I was working on something. But for a long time, until I was nearly done, I didn't tell anybody else I was writing a novel. This meant I had to make lots of excuses about how I was spending my time, but it also removed any pressure I put on myself to 'finish' and to 'succeed.' I had never read a word of 'how to' when it came to creative writing at the time. I just sat down and started. I had a half-lifetime of being an avid reader behind me, so I knew what books were like, and I had already achieved a degree in English—so I didn't make tons of SPAG errors. But I had never taken ANY creative writing courses, or studied the craft at all. What I ended up with was a piece where I made every creative writing mistake in the book. (I mean—I started with the old chestnut of an unnamed character, whom I called 'the young man' on a mysterious journey—and went from there to create even stupider clichés.) But I knew I had created a story setting, plot, and characters that made me happy. That's when I began reading how-to books and learning the craft of Creative Writing. I then set about making my novel better, by working on my writing style and tone, and by tweaking my character development and certain aspects of the plot, and tightening things up overall. (And I completely reworked the beginning by starting in a different place altogether.) I ended up removing over a third of what I'd originally written—but I finally go it to the point where other people liked it as well. It was a long, but very satisfying process. And I loved doing it all ...even the editing and re-writing. It was all part of 'creation.' Not quite as enthralled with the process of getting it formatted for publication, but that's kind of a different thing. Nothing to do with writing, and everything to do with mastering software.
Hi @labelab A singer is just someone who sings, a writer someone who writes. Each requires the development of particular skills. To be a professional in either field is another matter; this requires the development of a different skill set. Most people miss this, as I did for many years. People generally focus on gaining proficiency in their chosen field, thinking if they become good enough it'll somehow lead into a profession. Maybe this is true in sensational cases, but on the whole it isn't. Really, to improve their chances of professional success, an artist should focus as much on developing their professional skill set as they do on developing proficiency in their art. Also, if I may be so bold: Why would you want to be a singer so bad if not for the love of singing?
Seriously, it's one of the hardest professions to be successful in. For every successful author, there are thousands that are unsuccessful, or just scraping by. The field of journalism is cutting back when news and news commentary is available for free on the net. English speaking people in low income countries write non-fiction articles for compensation nobody in the Western world could accept. Unless you know from hard evidence that you are VERY talented, or you have amazing connections that are sure to help you along the way, you really shouldn't assume that you can make a living from writing fiction. Possibly, somebody with decent writing skills could write articles for commercial interests and get paid for it. A friend of mine does that. Seriously though, how rewarding is that? If you need to be sure you can support yourself and your family then you need to have a "day job", even if writing is your true passion. You can then pursue writing as a hobby and if you are good and persistent enough, you might eventually get lucky and get something published.
