Writing and the curse of the perfectionist

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Are you a perfectionist?

I am, and to be honest it’s a killer for creativity. You’re forever backtracking, self-editing, critiquing and generally smothering your creative offspring because the reality doesn’t quite measure up to the fantasy.

Attention to detail is great, but there’s a point in the writing and publishing process for nit-picking – that time is when you edit, re-draft and polish your prose, not while you’re still powering through your story.

So, fellow scribes, pens or keyboards at the ready – don’t look behind you to ruminate on what you’ve written, plough on and think and write about what will be.

And then, we’ll see…

Words are a lens to focus one’s mind

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‘Word are a lens to focus one’s mind’. Ayn Rand penned this, and yet I feel it could so easily have been uttered by one of my all-time favourite detectives, Sherlock Holmes.

The super-smart Russian-American novelist and libertarian heroine might have enjoyed the Baker Street detective’s piercing intellect (or not – Holmes didn’t really have a way with women).

As I write this post I’m reminded, yet again, that Atlas Shrugged (Rand’s most famous work) is still gathering dust on my reading pile. One step closer…

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