If you're a novelist, screenwriter, or any sort of artist, chances are you deal with perfectionism. It's common for us artists to feel pressured into crafting something that is perfect. It's common for us writers to fixate on crafting a perfect short story or novel or screenplay.
But here's the thing: your first draft is never meant to be perfect. In fact, it's meant to be shit. You may have heard this multiple times but it needs to be reminded, over and over, that a first draft is never meant to have anything poetic or anything grand in it, but will have elements that may still have significance for your next draft.
A first draft is your true outline. You may have an outline (or not, if you're a pantser), but your first draft is your true outline, the one that will guide you to write a better draft. It's easy to fall into this perfectionism trap and difficult to get out of, but you have to escape that trap or else you will never finish that project you've been so passionate on finishing.
Don't focus on crafting a perfect first draft. It's rare to have a perfect first draft. That does happen but that's rare. Instead, focus on letting a first draft just being a first draft. Just write shit, because after you're done with that first draft, you will then have something to look back on and rewrite and I can guarantee that the second draft will be at least better than that first draft. That's what writing is all about. Rewriting and rewriting.
And this can apply to other forms of art, like painting, music, game development, whatever. You just have to make shit in order to craft something even better. Just like what Ernest Hemingway said, "The first draft of anything is shit."
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I made a new art thing. It’s titled “the fuck perfection garden” I rage made it ✨
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im back and im gonna try writing again, its probably gonna be cringey and very bad
but i kept trying to make it perfect, and got overwhelmed
so fuck it, its gonna be cringe :>
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My need for academic validation really fucks me up and is actually so ridiculous. Like it’s a number on a piece of paper it can’t hurt me but it feels like weapon
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More watercolors
This is definitely the sketch I like the most out of what I've done so far. But don't let it fool you...there were many moments when I thought there was no saving it, but then I would add more shit to it and cover the big mistakes.
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It’s always my fault, isn’t it?
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I really NEED to write a Merthur textfic but I don't know if I'm any good.
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How do you find the best way to word an idea? Is there even such a thing as the best way or is perfectionism messing with me?
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