Today's writing tip: eliminate the perfectionism which kills your career

If you're a perfectionist, I sympathize.

It's taken me many years to get over my perfectionist tendencies, and if I don't watch out, they still come back to bite me.

If you suffer from the "it's not good enough" disease, you need to cure yourself.

Here's how.

1. Form an intention for each piece of writing, and write it down.

Some examples: "____ is a series of ten articles to promote __________";  "_________ is a press release promote _________"; "_________ is an ebook for affiliate marketing newbies".

Your intention may be one sentence, or two, maximum.

You write an intention to maintain perspective. This is essential. Around a decade a ago I was working with an editor at a large publishing house on a series of books. We were having lunch to celebrate the publication of one of them, and she commented on the sales. I shrugged and replied: "It's just a book." She laughed and said I was the first writer she'd met who had a sense of perspective about their work.

So perspective is essential, and perfectionism destroys it. Writing down an intention helps you to maintain perspective. Whatever you're writing is JUST a piece of writing, one of many you'll produce in your career.

2. Set deadlines for the outline, the first draft, and the revision.

These are your own deadlines, and they should come before any deadlines in contracts. (That is, if your contracted deadline to complete a project is by September 24, your own deadline for completion is by September 10.)

Keep your own deadlines, always. Having plans and deadlines eliminates perfectionism. If you know you need to write 70 pages by this time next week to meet your deadline, you'll write them.

A deadline forces you to see any writing project as having a beginning, a middle and an end... and it helps to quash perfectionism.

Try these two methods to eliminate perfectionism. They work -- you'll write more, and your writing will be better for it, too.

Posted via email from Angela Booth's Life Stream