29 A Case against Perfection
W
hat? A case againstperfection?
I am not encouraging you to be sloppy.
I am urging you to keep writing once you’ve begun and don’t
stop until you’ve hit the finish line for that draft.
And I’m urging you to edit your work following the steps I give
you in a moment.
What I am saying here is that too many writers (including me)
begin a project, judge it as pretty bad, and quit. They quit because
their writing doesn’t look “perfect.”
And too many writers (including me) begin to edit their work
and then either: (1) decide the project is trash and dump it into a
file, or (2) decide the project needs a lotof rewriting and then
spend weeks, months, even yearson it!
No! Finish what you started—fast! Complete it, edit it, rewrite
it, polish it—, and then get it out the door!
I have learned that this is a fundamental key to success: Don’t
wait for perfection.
John Ruskin said, “No good work whatever can be perfect, and
the demand for perfection is always a sign of a misunderstanding
of the ends of art.”
Perfection is your enemy. Do the best you can and move on toccc_hypnotic_118-120_ch29.qxd 11/3/06 3:03 PM Page 118