Tuesday's Inspiration - ala Anne Lamott - Perfectionism #MFRWauthor #amwriting

I'm enjoying my reading of Bird By Bird for who knows how many times. This piece on Perfectionism brought back memories of when I first began writing. My first short story of 2500 words took me three months to write. Why - because I strove for the piece to be perfect. To quote from Bird By Bird - "Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people."
 She is so right.

Writing that short story took a long time, but my first novel took several years - nearly three. Not that I was striving for perfection, I was learning. Thanks to so many editors who viewed the book and sent me reasons why my book wasn't suitable for them, I learned. I also learned that nothing is perfect.

Recently I've been reworking a number of stories written three or four years ago to have them re-published. I've learned several things. Most of these books received great reviews. 4 or5 on a scale of one to 5. But I discovered there were things that needed to be made better. Notice I said Better not perfect. I'm sure if I look at them in four or five years I'll be able to make them better. I'm not going to do that though.

For me Perfectionism is one way of  procrastinating. How about you? Do you look at your work and write the end, then send it off and have qualms? Is it perfect? Probably not. It's as perfect as you can make it at your stage of writing. If you're like me, the more you write, the more you learn. So the moral of this piece is - There is no Perfection so don't hang yourself up on trying to find it. Save that for the next book or story.

Re-visiting Bird by Bird - Thoughts on First drafts and perfectionism

I'll do two in one this time because to me they're connected. Rough or first drafts and perfection.

Probably one reason I enjoy this books so much and that it inspires me is because I'm a draft writer. I tend to write a first draft that literally is one only I could love and I would never let anyone see it. Anne Lamott believes there's nothing wrong with a bad first draft. I absolutely agree and often for me whole scenes are completed in a sentence. There is a big fight here. They make love. The murder takes place here. Other scenes are wanderings and wonderings, but out of these usually come material I can use by rewriting, re-thinking or expanding. There are also things that are shredded so no one can see them. Just remember this "There is nothing wrong with a rotten first draft."

As to perfectionism. For me this is impossible. I've read things I've written that when I wrote them and when they were published I thought were perfect. Later when re-reading them, I saw places where they could be made better. So why did I stop before I reached perfection. Probably because I was so sick of tweeking the story that it no longer seemed anything I was interested in. I told someone I stopped revising when the story made me want to spill my guts.

Reading the pages on perfectionism also brought a memory to mind. Like Anne Lamott I had my tonsils removed when I was probably twenty. I was a nursing student and had assisted at a tonsillectomy as my first scrub. After they picked me off the floor, the doctor told me to scrub again and get back to work. Then I endured my own battle with the knife and the suction. My throat hurt. The pain felt like razors and swallowing was the pits. Now a nurse told Ms. Lamott to chew gum. That was not my poison. When I got home I poured a glass of orange juice. My mother thought I was crazy but didn't stop me. I drank that just down and funny thing, though it hurt, once my eyes stopped tearing, I realized the pain was little more than an ache.