#I’m allowed a degree of perfectionism in my fanfic

[oddlittlestories]

Do I NEED to rewatch all of s1-4 + “Wilson” to understand it through the lens of Wilson / Spencer’s recent post on 97 seconds

before continuing on in HH:Reprise

in order to make sure I nail his & House’s portrayal in HH:Reprise?

No, no I don’t.

I don’t.

I do not.

This is NOT in the spirit of the “make it finished” > “make it better” poll

[dazedandlucid]

I love writing and I have so many ideas but I'm a perfectionist and I'm very picky with my Fanfiction / story reads so my standards are raised so high and I end up critiquing myself so much and it makes it harder to write. I write and delete it all later whether it be 100 words or 10k words and it's frustrating me so I stopped writing for a while but I want to start again, do you have any tips for me or a good pep talk maybe

so the good news is perfectionism, or rather the feeling of your art never being good enough, is really common. the sentiment basically boils down to “the thing will never reach the potential of the idea of the thing”. you can always imagine it better without the mechanics to bring it to that idealized better. it’s a feeling a lot of creatives have to grapple with. my experience with this was a little different. when i started writing, i actually had zero sense of this. i would write something once, check for grammar, and be pretty content with the whole thing. i never outlined, edited, re-wrote, did any sort of critical dissection of my own writing. this was positively reinforced by the positive reaction and encouraging and relatively dedicated following i had amassed. fast forward years later after a lot of time spent reading, reading about writing, but also interacting with a lot of different media, and more importantly, the way this media is created, and my perspective totally changed. i’ve talked a bit on here on how much i believe in outlining and how much i rely on re-writing. there’s this saying that the first draft will always be shit, but i think the thing to realize is, the first draft is only the potential of an idea. it’s the surface. most writers will tell you their first draft(s) are pure crap. but they make it better. they see the potential of it. obviously, fanfic operates on a different level of writing demand typically, but your recognition that your writing could improve is actually a good instinct. to a degree. if it’s as extreme as you’re saying where your standards are so high, writing isn’t fun or joyful for you and is just a competition against yourself, than this is where that perfectionism isn’t a personality trait, it’s a roadblock that is stopping you from doing creative work. and here is the thing: it’s never going to be perfect. a piece of writing (or literally anything we do/create) could always hypothetically be improved. this extends from writing to movies to scientific theories to bills passed in a court. but here is the other thing: humans aren’t perfect. so nothing we create could ever be truly perfect (notice how so many albums/songs/books get reviewed as “perfect” casually? this is all hyperbole of course). and this is more than okay. this is good, in my opinion. because instead of hammering away at this same idea for forever in order to reach this elusive state of perfection, it allows you to interact with a story/idea, work on it, and know when to let it go. when you personally feel satisfied. when it feels true. to you. there isn’t really a way to come to terms with this. i struggle with this too. i look at writing i’ve shared and immediately see ten different things i would fix/change right off the bat. but it’s the past. it’s no longer something i’m working on. it’s a representation that i’ve grown and learn (at least somewhat) as a writer. it is a process you have to go through personally but it really just comes down to working despite that nagging feeling that what you’re writing isn’t good enough. but that feeling is proof that you do have a sense for what’s good and what isn’t. but the thing is? unless you actually write, and write a lot, you’re never going to get to a point where you are satisfied with what you write. writing is like any other skill. you have to actually do it to be good at it on any level.

it gets thrown around a lot writers are their own worst critics. you learn to set that aside. i think it’s important to consider why you write. you want to be good, but being good at it isn’t a reason to write. you write because you have something to say. you want to express yourself. you need a creative outlet, something to do for fun. a myriad of other reasons. regardless of why, good writing isn’t perfect. good writing, for whatever reason you do it, should be honest. it has some truth to it. perfection doesn’t.