Done is better than perfect
I have Facebook to thank for a neat and tidy motto: Done is better than perfect. I’ve practiced this philosophy for years. I regularly tell people to strive for “B” work because you can get so much more done in your life--with more joy and ease--if you let go of it being perfect.
However, at this particular moment I’m having a hard time believing this philosophy. I just turned in my ‘done but not perfect’ manuscript for my second novel, Living Right, and I feel a little nauseated. I think I’m ready for it to be in the world. I really don’t have any changes to make. But could I have done more to make it a better story? I’m afraid that I and all the editors are missing something obvious. I know it’s not a perfect story, but is it good enough?!
I turned it in, so obviously I’ve decided that it is. I will just have to accept the fact that the leap of faith that goes with putting art into the world is going to make my stomach drop.
However, at this particular moment I’m having a hard time believing this philosophy. I just turned in my ‘done but not perfect’ manuscript for my second novel, Living Right, and I feel a little nauseated. I think I’m ready for it to be in the world. I really don’t have any changes to make. But could I have done more to make it a better story? I’m afraid that I and all the editors are missing something obvious. I know it’s not a perfect story, but is it good enough?!
I turned it in, so obviously I’ve decided that it is. I will just have to accept the fact that the leap of faith that goes with putting art into the world is going to make my stomach drop.
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I know, being a perfectionist myself, it makes you your own worst enemy on occasion. I have just completed my first novel and sent it for a first read-through by one of my friends in my writer's circle. It was so difficult to stop editing and perfecting the story, as each time I read through the draft, I always felt that I could have improved it, You just have to say "enough is enough" at some stage.