continual expansion rather than fear of rejection, and it nurtures resilience.
When I began writing intentionally, I kneaded my words until I thought they were perfect. When a kindly mentor suggested a few things I could improve upon (okay, more than a few things), I was devastated. Pride won out, however, and I decided to take his advice. I’ll show him, I thought, sure that he’d recognize the error of his judgment when he saw the results. But I was wrong. His suggestions improved my writing. For the next few months, we slipped into a routine: each week, I would implement the editing suggestions he provided for one story and draft a new story for him to critique. I didn’t attempt to make each story perfect; instead, I strove to make improvements and take what I learned from one into the next. When those few months were up, I had nearly enough material for a short story collection. By shifting my focus to excellence rather than perfection, I made progress and felt good about it. Now, nearly twenty-five years later, my writing process has evolved into a three-draft process for achieving the progressive nature of excellence over the stalemate of perfectionism: Draft One: Get it done, no matter what it looks like. Draft Two: Assess the work (including feedback from others) and revise. Draft Three: Assess the revision, add a few more tweaks if necessary, celebrate your achievement, and take what you learned into the next project. Do I take this approach with everything I do? I certainly try. But I’m not perfect, and I’m no longer trying to be. Perfectionism is increasing over time: A meta-analysis of birth cohort differences from 1989 to 2016. (apa.org) Perfectionism Among Young People Significantly Increased Since 1980s, Study Finds (apa.org) 1 2
BETTER DONE THAN PERFECT
Page 21
Powered by FlippingBook