Attached Link: http://ericmaisel.blogspot.com/

Apple Seeds and Wabi-Sabi, by Eric Maisel (March 19, 2006, entry) I'm sure I'm not the only signed up for Eric Maisel's emails so I apologize ahead for those who are well familiar with it. What struck me about this particular essay is that, often, I know I defeat myself by not being able to be perfect in what I do. I will gnaw at a single line and ignore the fact that completing something is more important than making it perfect. I work for someone (several someones, in fact) that spend their very expensive time dithering over a chart or other work, in their pursuit of perfection. The result is that something will have taken several thousand dollars worth of time to work and rework, but the person receiving it will take a quick look and toss it into the recycle bin a day after we have completed it. It is just the way things are in the universe of city governement. Maybe there is a brief satisfaction in trying to achieve perfection...but wouldn't there be more satisfaction in creating something memorable? It makes me think about writing and how I will find myself striving for the perfect word, the perfect phrase, the perfect plot, etc. and how I find myself unable to send out the result to a publisher because it isn't perfect yet, and I keep thinking I have to rework it and rework it and rework it to make it acceptable for someone else to read. Life isn't about being perfect, is it? Life is about accepting we can't be perfect, and that no one is. That for all the obsession with plastic surgery and dieting, yet people are gloriously imperfect and that's really want makes them interesting to write about. I personally have no interest in flawless characters...I can't identify with them. And yet I ask the writing of an imperfect person (me) to be more perfect than I am. It's an inconsistency, isn't it? I wonder how others feel about this, in relationship to their writing. Have you learned to let go of perfectionism or do you find it is actually a help in your writing? Just curious.

Attached Link: http://www.leechild.com/

When Lee Child was at the South Carolina Writers Workshop in the fall, he was asked if he ever looked back on his books and wished he could make changes. He answered no. He said he considered his writing to be "a snapshot in time" that illustrated what he and his character were experiencing when it was written. From a workshop attendee. Lee Child is the author of seven Jack Reacher thrillers. His debut, Killing Floor, won both the Anthony and the Barry Awards for Best First Mystery.

Hello Dialyn, Your posts above have caused me to think about perfectionism. Everyone has self-doubts about their projects. Thank goodness. But once you're certain the core idea is developed, on paper or other media, tweaking for the optimal word, phrase, color, or perspective is a dodge. [ I'm a dodger with a colossal and fragile ego. ] But time flows. Either get the idea out in the world, or forget it. I've wasted years, decades even, dodging under the guise of perfectionism on some things. Blast! Those years won't come back. Dick p.s. Dodged putting these thoughts into bytes for two days, and this morning dodged for another lost hour of tweaking.

Hi Dialyn,

Quote: It makes me think about writing and how I will find myself striving for the perfect word, the perfect phrase, the perfect plot, etc. and how I find myself unable to send out the result to a publisher because it isn't perfect yet, and I keep thinking I have to rework it and rework it and rework it to make it acceptable for someone else to read.

Been there, done that on the story that is in parts now here at Renderosity, for over a year I worked that book. Publishing it now, here, has taught me something valuable as wild and wonderful. Do not ever do that again! Because I have voluntarily destroyed that book, I made it confusing, with more mistakes then you can shake a stick at; if people actually enjoy it, from this perspective at this point in my life it will be an utter miracle!

As for that particular book and its destruction; In which case I agonized and tortured myself about it for over a year time frame striving for perfection. I learning as I went, reworked, reworked, and reworked it to death. Perfection in fighting with the words placed, fighting internally over the subtraction of AI, about grammar and spelling and so on. I literally nit pick the living hell out of it in a quest for perfection, as if I had done went off the deep end of sanity till I mutilated it into a big pile of shit! Now left with a wound, I am disgusted with it if you want to know the truth. Sick to my guts and must force myself to put it up here at Renderosity.

In the beginning of uploading it, I did it out of curiosityAs I did indeed receive my answers, and I do it now for two reasons. One, I am as others still learning, it is my scar, my reminder of what not to do, and I figure, why not show the world or at least the Renderosity writers as readers that in factSHIT HAPPENS!

You see, I am a visual artist in the since that I paint in oils and I know how to do this because I have studied and learned how. Therefore, when I place my lines in real life paint, most all are as perfect as I am going to get them at that moment. Some minor tweaking in the work might be ok later on after it has sat awhile. But if I were to over do a visual painted creation, it would be painfully as visually obvious unlike it is with writing; in that I would end with a blob of mess, so horrible to call it my art would be a disgrace to myself, as to those who have seen it.

Where, highly possibly paid I could be, to toss that canvas into the trash and start again. So now, with writing, all I do is study and write. Write, write and write The first book, then move to the second, then the thirdwhen I am done with the third or forth, I will go back to the first and tweak gently. I then put a removable star on the topbegin a pile called published in a real life folderPrint it and put it there.(I name this file published not because it is yet, but because I believe in the power of the mind and in knowledge, and in that I mean. The brain will only produce what it is knows to produce. In other words, if you know the ball is round and I ask you to draw a ballyou will draw a circle, without thought.) This is my realityand it works for me, maybe it might work for you or someone else Maybe not, and no I have not sent any books I have written to a publisher yet, but I will, and I promise to let everyone here know when I do.

P.S. I do not think I am the best, or that there is nothing left for me to learn, as I know there is. But, I know one thing for sureIn the bottom of a cracker jack box, there is a prizeSometimes it is not what you want, and sometimes it is, although the real fun comes, in opening the box, and throwing the cracker jacks out all over the place to get to the prizelaugh out loud.

Thanks Dialyn, and just because I want tooyou have nothing to fear, I for one, love your writing.