Perfectionist Tendencies?

This is the perfect thread for me at this moment for three reasons: 1) I used to do that--started something, decided it sucked, either restarted or went to a different idea 2) My sister is stuck on her novel for the very same reason you are, and 3) Since I've overcome my perfectionist tendencies, now I'm feeling like what I write is crap (but I keep writing my crap) so I'm feeling very bad.

I really hope you can finally start and continue your project (without hating your writing the entire time, of course, like I do).

(Thanks for letting me vent, btw).

Yeah. I have that problem too. I type a sentence and then delete and rewrite a dozen or twenty times trying to find just the right word combination. And three hours later I'm lucky to have written a paragraph.

Eventually it gets easier to just write. I have to consciously tell my inner editor to shut the hell up. And when I start getting stuck on nitpicky stuff I tell myself that it's just a practice draft. I'll polish it up later.

Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't.

I also keep a small notebook (pocket sized) that I jot ideas in. That way when some new, fabulous story tries to grab my attention I can safely put it on the back shelf without forgetting it.

Someone said in a different thread that they read some book they thought was going to be good and it turned out so bad that they felt inspired to write. That was me, too. I read a series I really enjoyed but the final book ended in such a way that made me mad. I fumed about for days. I even re-wrote the ending for another book I read. Of course, the novel itself was not mine and the only person to ever read my alternate ending was me but it did give me a small measure of satisfaction to hear the "right" ending being told! Ha!

Anyway, that's what motivated me to get serious about my writing and I became so impassioned that I ended up writing about three books worth in six months (and obviously had to divide it up into smaller portions).

Moral of the story: Find your passion within your genre. Read more.

That is always a reason with me. I always start a story, think it sucks and delete that chapter to start it again. It happens over and over and over and i looked at this site and it said the best thing to do is keep writing till the end and then go and make changes once it's finished. i said i'd do that but my need to make it better was louder and so i'm now stuck. lol.

I used to struggle with coming up with a concept I thought was worth writing about. I knew that I was good at using words descriptively, etc. but I couldn't take any idea past the 10,000 word mark because I didn't feel that I knew how to plot, or I thought there was no great meaning behind what I was writing (analyzing literature in school really screwed me up for years).

I thought back on when I really enjoyed writing. My fifth grade teacher would give us a title and we'd all write a story based on that title. I wrote the most ridiculous, Indiana Jones-like adventures and I loved it! So I gave my twenty-something self permission not to try to write the next "great novel," or even to worry about the plot and just let myself go. The result was a middle grade science-fantasy written in the fun-loving spirit of my little-kid self.

Once I finished that novel, the stories just came pouring out, and they show no sign of stopping. And, no, my other stories aren't silly. The latest completed novel is for adults, and has an intense, serious feel.

In my experience, writing a novel without worrying about plot, theme, etc. (It ended up having both an engaging plot and a strong theme anyway) enabled me to move forward and write other novels in which I did worry about those things ahead of time.

My advice: write a practice novel, just for fun. Don't worry if it's really bad. Practice not being perfect, and your writing may improve!

Who are y'all writing for...yourself or the reader? Do you think the reader cares if the word selection is this over that, or do you think that reader wants to get lost in the story? If you write for the reader, your first draft will focus on the story, not on the fine points of the writing craft. It won't require sentences that will make reader go "oooh that sure is purdy writing."

Tell the story. Focus on the story. Get from the start to the end. THEN, go back in edits with the more perfectionist eye and clean up the prose, but still with eyes focused on the story.

Here's the big "however." The most important thing, beyond anything said above, is to develop self-discipline, which means sticking to a story until it's done. Until that is accomplished, a person isn't a writer. He/she is just someone who writes stuff. Your choice...

I can relate, no doubt.

I always spend weeks trying to figure out the perfect starting scene and then feel like I need to restart.

It's just something you have to learn to move past. In a first draft it is very rare to hit the right starting point. You really have to stow your editor's hat and just write.

Good novels aren't written. They are rewritten, revised, rewritten some more, and on and on. But, the novel has to be complete before that is effective.

Maybe I should put this back in my sigline.

Perfectionism is a bitter antagonist to the otherwise healthy mind.

There. All done. Oh, and the other quote is just as important.

I just remembered a lesson one of my mentors gave me (I also suffered from the need to constantly rewrite my openings).

She said writing was very much like sculpting. You start out with a raw block of material. In sculpting, this is marble, clay, whatever. In writing, this is your idea.

To begin, you need to create an outline. In sculpting, this is the very raw chisels that give you a basic form. In writing, this is the freewriting of the first draft/outline.

Now, imagine the sculptor beings not with the basic form, but instead decides to start the head right away. The sculptor works and shapes the head until it is absolutely perfect. Once the head is perfect, the sculptor begins to create the body. However, the sculptor soon realizes the head was made too big and it is out of proportion with the rest of the body. All the time spent on the head is wasted since it doesn't fit in with the rest of the sculpture.

She related this to novel writing by saying it is pointless to continue going back over the beginning BEFORE you have an ending written. Often, they don't match up and both need to be adjusted. It is only after you have the basic form realized should you begin to fill in all the details and tie it all in together.

Prozyan has a great point on why one should work through it before tinkering.

I think I'm kind of like Little Bird and LoveSaphira. Mine is more of a plotting problem. I'm not picking it apart word by word or worrying which word to use. It's more like having a sustainable idea or knowing where it is going is a problem.

I'll write 20,000 words (possibly 30,000) and then it's like I just don't know where it's heading or think it's boring or whatever and just wander off to something else. Adult ADD I would imagine. At any rate, I do think just sticking with it is the key. I also like the idea of just writing a practice novel, etc. Just give myself permission that even if it sucks, I've at least finished it.

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Maybe you're someone who would benefit from doing some "outlining" or other type of planning. When you start a piece, do you have at least some idea of how you want it to end, where you're going with it? Maybe if you wrote out the "bare bones" of the plot, at least, you'd have something concrete to work towards, a next scene you're headed for, when you get a little discouraged.

I encourage you to bull your way ahead, though. I was going back through some of my old notebooks, and I was ashamed at how many noble beginnings they held. Many of those proto-novels were lively and interesting...but I'd given up on them for no reason that I can now recall, to go on to something more fun / less frustrating at the time. Even if those pieces never were destined to come to anything, I'm annoyed with myself for not finishing them! Of course, I could always revisit some of them now...

Keep on writing!

--Q

Prozyan's advice really made me think. I think all writers have this impulse to edit, edit, edit right after writing. My beta knows I have this problem, and so she suggested to me that I don't read a chapter before it is completely finished. Even then, I have to move on to another one, and let it stew for about a week, before I take out my red pen.
Unlike Quossum, I can't outline. Outlining makes me feel restricted, so I generally get the giss of a novel and work from there. And then go back and rewrite.
If it helps you, I always keep in mind my heroine's specific journey/goal/obstacle before I write, so there won't be any pacing or plot-related problems.

You will just have to realize this:

- An unfinished manuscript is NEVER "perfect."

So, make your perfectionism work for you: Finish the draft, and then make it perfect!

You have to make a commitment to your work and not give up before it's done. Do you take this seriously (being such a perfectionist as you are), or do you just like to idea of starting new stories?

It's up to you to make that choice.


(or do what I do: I DO NOT start a new project until I'm done with the one I'm working on -- get rid of the temptation and you won't end up with a million unfinished projects....)

(or do what I do: I DO NOT start a new project until I'm done with the one I'm working on -- get rid of the temptation and you won't end up with a million unfinished projects....)

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I can see how this would be a smart move for a lot of people who have a problem with finishing projects. However, I routinely work on more than one project at a time, and have no problem finishing. For me, it helps me get more writing done if I can take a break from a project that's giving me difficulty and work on another for a few days. In my case, I need the break and would be "wasting" that time doing something else. I might as well spend it writing.

Starting a new project while letting a manuscript marinate between revisions of various drafts also works for me.

For someone who has never finished a novel, though, this would probably not be the way to go.

For me, I think I believed that writing fiction would never feel like getting a research paper or academic essay right (the drudgery) and would always have that romantic, fun feeling of the exciting parts.

I really rock at academic essays, so now I use that skill to push through the - yes - dull parts of fiction writing. I find with both that polishing up is so much easier once something is down, even if it's absolutely not perfect.

THe hard part about being a writer or anything creative is that we can sometimes be a bit of a 'popcorn head'. Popping from one project to the next before we are done.

There is SERIOUS danger in that. Human beings are creatures of habit and when you do that you are creating the habit of not finishing. You have to train yourself to finish what you start. There is no more important habit as a writer IMHO.

The big problem I see among newbies is to try to write a perfect first draft. NO SUCH THING EXISTS. In the movie Finding Forester Sean Connery gave the perfect bit of advice. "First write with your heart than write with your head."

Personally, I have about 5 - 6 drafts I go through. My order goes something like this (For a 4,000 word story).

1st Draft Just get the story out and down on paper. This becomes the clay from which the story is actually written (takes about 2 - 3 days)

2nd Draft Now I have enough clay to get to the REAL story (takes about 1 - 2 weeks)

3rd Draft. Now that the story is refined, I put on my editors hat and go through to the best of my ability. Then I send out for critiques (takes about 1 wk plus 1 wk for feedback, in the meantime starting another story)

4th Draft. I incorporate feedback from the critiques, do another rewrite and editing cycle and send out again for critiques from both readers and writers (1 wk)

5th Draft. Incorporate feedback (2 days) and this is the last rewrite and editing cycle, more of a touch up and polish. Story is likely to never be touched again. Send out to editors, continue with another Work in Progress

6th Draft. On rare occasion, incorporating suggestions/feedback from editor

granted we are all different, but i've found that this process means I always have something in the queue and i'm always working to completion.

Lastly, we just have to give ourselves permission to write badly. I've worked on some big steaming piles of dogshit, but I struggle through it because that particular pile of dung will stillmake my NEXT story better.

Anyways, that is me.

Lastly, I will leave you with a line from Uncle Jim's thread that I live by.

"You do not finish stories, you escape them..."

Mel...

BeluvdLily said:

I feel that I have perfectionist tendencies that keep me from even starting writing projects. Or I will start them, get tired of them or decide they suck and then suddenly another project sounds much more appealing. Does anyone else have this problem?

I know that the only solution is to start a project and just keep on until I finish it. There just seems to be something holding me back.

Amie

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I have this problem too. I've reached the 23,000+ mark in my WIP and it's getting harder, so I just decided to let go and write scenes out of order. This has helped me a lot with getting through the hard part. I try not to visualize where the story will end up. At least not in the first draft. I'm going to reserve that for draft two. So far it's take the pressure off.

When I have another idea for a story. I jot it down, just to make sure I don't forget it. It's hard sometimes not to flesh those ideas out, but I know it would derail me from my goal. Plus it keeps me motivated to finish, so I can get to those other ideas and make them into more books.

Good Luck!

maestrowork said:

You will just have to realize this:

- An unfinished manuscript is NEVER "perfect."

So, make your perfectionism work for you: Finish the draft, and then make it perfect!

(or do what I do: I DO NOT start a new project until I'm done with the one I'm working on -- get rid of the temptation and you won't end up with a million unfinished projects....)

Click to expand...

Good Advice.

Wow, the threads makes me feel so not alone. I’m committing all the advice given here to memory.

Hmm. Writing scenes out of order is not a bad idea. You can work on the stuff that's most appealing to you at the moment. That helps keep the interest level high.

I find that going start to finish is better though, at least for the first couple of drafts. Even with an outline my stories tend to flux so much that trying to write out of order winds up being counterproductive as I just have to trash stuff that no longer fits.

I would also like to add that there is a rhythm to writing. By the time I got to the end of my current WIP the quality of what I was writing was much better than the beginning or middle. (The middle, by the way, was the worst.) But I can't usually focus on plot AND characterization AND tone AND word choice AND etc. The perfectionist wants to do all those at once and for most of us it just isn't possible. So I try to do just a couple things at once. First draft, story/plot and developing characters. Second draft, tone and dialogue (plus cleaning up all the stuff that doesn't make sense in the first draft.) Third draft, nitpicking about word choice. And so on.

It works for me. But it took a while before I was able to let myself write like that and not try and do everything in one pass. (Years of writing actually, but I'm especially stubborn and old habits die hard.)

Just keep at it and I think you'll find it starts to get easier.