Are you a perfectionist? (An invitation)
Hi Everyone,
As writers, what is your relationship to perfectionism? Is it an obstacle to your writing? To finishing work? Do you see it as an essential part of your ambition? An impossible goal?
Please feel free to share your thoughts, or simply sit with this a bit.
Abrazos,
Cristina
I wouldn’t say I’m a perfectionist, per se. The universe knows I’m far from perfect, and have no desire to be perfect in the way most folks think of it.
In my estimation, perfection on the whole is unattainable. However, when I’m writing, there are moments when I find the exact word a sentence needs, and it feels amazing. Other times, I’ll write and rewrite a sentence or phrase—a description or detail—over and over until it sings, until it is PRECISELY what the piece I’m writing needs. It’s that type of persistence that yields what some of us think of as perfection.
Perfecting is doing a lot of little things really well. If we manage to do a lot of little, imperceptible things really well, that’s what I think of as perfection. Getting extremely good, virtuously good, persistently and consistently good at as many of the little things that make writing what it is—that’s what I’d call perfect.
After all, only we can write the books we are going to write, and while they may not be considered Toni Morrison-perfect, the accumulation of basic things done with virtuous skill creates the perfect effect.