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How To Fight My Inner Perfectionist?



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Sun Jan 03, 2016 6:05 pm
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comrie says...



Hey guys,

I've recently realized that I have a major problem when it comes to writing: me. Well, my inner me. Which happens to be a perfectionist.

My inner perfectionist has kept me at the same scene for a few weeks now and I am not comfortable with that. I don't feel comfortable with just writing because I find that it aggravates this inner me a bit, but I wish it didn't. I want to write freely but I keep feeling this tug to stay where I am and perfect it and then move on. This ends up making me lose motivation and taking breaks longer than what I'm comfortable with. And then I jump back in because I am ultimately in love with just plain old storytelling and the stories in my head and how I'm able to express myself when I actually do get some writing done. But wanting everything to be perfect has made it all hard.

So, my question to any of you guys fighting some inner perfectionist is, how do you move on from a chapter or a scene or even a paragraph?
  





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Sun Jan 03, 2016 7:05 pm
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Rosendorn says...



It could be you've actually gone off course for the story and are forcing it to go in a direction it shouldn't, but you aren't realizing it yet.

When I get completely and totally stuck like this, I usually realize the scene doesn't work. It's not in the right direction. There's a disconnect from where the story should go based on what was previously written.

So I scrap however long it takes for it to feel right again and rewrite, trying to figure out what was forced. Where the wrong turn was. Where a better direction would be, based on what was previously written.

Now, this doesn't work if you've got an inner perfectionist so insistent that you're going to scrap everything because it all feels wrong, so I'm going to suggest something else:

Take a break.

It could be that you're too close to the work and can't see the forest for the trees, so to speak. It happens. Start another project, work on ridiculous drabbles, worldbuild, avoid writing for awhile. Whatever it takes.

You could come back and see it's much better than you thought, or you could come back and realize where the wrong turn was and be able to edit better.

There's nothing wrong with needing to rest on a project. Neil Gaiman has said the only reason he appears so prolific is he's got so many stories going, and when he gets stuck on one, he switches. Many authors do the same because sometimes you just need to get away from the story to think clearly.

Hope this helps!
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

Ink is blood. Paper is bandages. The wounded press books to their heart to know they're not alone.
  





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Thu Feb 04, 2016 6:58 pm
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Lightsong says...



Ooh, I know this feeling. Sometimes I felt it too when I was writing a scene that didn't quite clear in my head. At that time, I took my time thinking about what was the next word to write, the next sentence, the next paragraph. I think the problem being a perfectionist is that we want everything to be perfect although we don't really go along with everything. Just like the said scene--I knew it was important, but since I didn't plan for it beforehand or had a clear idea about it from the start to the end, I took longer time to finish it.

One way to solve this is of course to plan things ahead. When you've done planning, you already know what to do, and won't have trouble putting it down on paper--or the computer screen ;). Another thing to note is that it's okay to be perfectionist, but sometimes you have to nurture your patience, and remind yourself that after you've finished a scene/chapter, you could always go back and edit it as a second draft. So what it really takes to overcome your perfectionist side is to encourage your patience to grow.

Hope this helps. Wish you all the best! :D
"Writing, though, belongs first to the writer, and then to the reader, to the world.

The subject is a catalyst, a character, but our responsibility is, has to be, to the work."

- David L. Ulin
  





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Mon Feb 08, 2016 11:52 pm
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birk says...



I have similar problems whenever I'm writing on my main projects. And though I value my own inner perfectionist, who wants each scene, paragraph and line to flow just about right, it obviously causes me to write very slowly, and as you said, that makes it more probable to lose interest in whatever you're writing.

I tell myself, and I tell you, that first drafts are first drafts for a reason. I try to just have fun and write the story I want. When (or if! hah!) I do finish my projects, I'll go over it again and again, and I'll bring value out of my inner perfectionist again.
"I never saved anything for the swim back."


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Fri Feb 26, 2016 10:30 pm
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Tenyo says...



I managed to get over this by adventuring into the Storybook forum and writing in there.

There are two important things about Storybooks. First, is that they're meant to be fun. You can be as creative and as ridiculous as you like, and as long as you keep posting, you're getting it right.

Second, is that you have no control over the plot, and that is a beautiful thing. You learn to make the best with what you have, with characters that fit someone else's idea of perfection, and scenarios that awkwardly fit into your predefined idea of how things should go. And if your post is awful, it's fine, because some time over the next few hours someone else will make another post and the imperfections are quickly accepted and brushed into history.

Once you've broken that grip of the perfection complex everything else comes more easily and writing becomes a lot more fun. You also learn to be more creative because you have to think beyond your current scope in order to accommodate for the influx of other peoples ideas.

Try it, and then come back and let me know how it goes =]
We were born to be amazing.
  





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Wed May 24, 2017 4:57 pm
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Snoink says...



I do this by allowing my inner perfectionist fight itself! XD

I write my novel by hand for my first draft, just to get it down on paper. Now! If I scratch a sentence out or something, it looks super ugly on paper, since I write in pen and there are no redos with pen, really. So, my perfectionist side doesn't want to see me scratch out my writing. So, yes, I'll look at a sentence or whatever and think, "Wow, that was super horribly phrased." But, because I am so much of a perfectionist, I don't want to scratch it out. So I'll say, "I will edit it later on the computer when I can make it beautiful. For now, let's just write what I have in my head."

That way, I can move on to another great scene, get motivated by seeing how many pages I've written, and write my story. :)

I do find that sometimes, even with my method, I mess up because I stick my characters in a situation that they would never be in, and so it feels super uncomfortable writing it. I just hit that sort of thing, actually, with Chapter 6... it suddenly felt awkward to write and I hated writing it. I scratched out those pages and started the chapter again in a better way which is something that my characters are more comfortable in, and now it feels easier!
Ubi caritas est vera, Deus ibi est.

"The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls the butterfly." ~ Richard Bach

Moth and Myth <- My comic! :D
  








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