Something that sometimes hinders my progress as a writer is this nagging sense that whatever I create must be somehow perfect, and that whatever I’m working on — whether it’s the first draft or the fifteenth — is that maybe I need to remove the comma I inserted last time, or cut a word here or there, or even entire sentences. If I just tweak it a bit, I reason, it will be ready to submit.
(Seems odd to confess this here and now, given my recent post about my tendency to rush to get a story submitted to a publication. (Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself, as Walt Whitman put it.)
A lot of other writers also grapple with their inner perfectionist, so I know I’m not alone.
Anyway, I was heartened to discover a nugget of writing advice to quiet the perfectionist in me.
It comes from Meditation for Mortals author Oliver Burkeman, who says:
If you’re roughly 70% happy with a piece of writing you’ve produced, you should publish it. If you’re 70% satisfied with a product you’ve created, launch it. If you’re 70% sure a decision is the right one, implement it. And if you’re 70% confident you’ve got what it takes to do something that might make a positive difference to the increasingly alarming era we seem to inhabit? Go ahead and do that thing. (Please!)
– Oliver Burkeman (source)
Burkeman adds: “… every time you release a creative work into the world, or make a commitment, or take an action, despite being no more than 70% satisfied with your output or confident in your abilities, you’re not only bringing something into concrete reality. You’re also expanding your ability to act in the presence of feelings of displeasure, worry and uncertainty, so that you can take more actions, and more ambitious actions, later on.
“Crucially, you’ll also be creating a body of evidence to prove to yourself that when you move forward at 70%, the sky stubbornly fails to fall in. People don’t heap scorn on you or punish you. Much of the time, they’re thrilled or grateful you stuck your head above the parapet.”
Good stuff. Read the entire post — or read at least 70% of it.
(Hat tip to writer/podcaster Brad Listi for sharing this in a recent newsletter.)
And now that I’m 70% satisfied with this post, I’ll proclaim it published, shipped, and done.
Image via Pexels
Andy writes! 
Thanks for sharing the 70% rule. I wish Mother Nature would apply it to this snowstorm….