Tuesday, September 24th, 2013
Don’t Let the Perfect Be the Enemy of the Good
Dans ses écrits, un sage Italien
Dit que le mieux est l’ennemi du bien.
Voltaire
(In his writings, a wise Italian
says that the best is the enemy of the good)
Despite the more concrete difficulties I often struggle with, the biggest obstacle to progress in my writing is my insistent fear that nothing I am about to write could ever be good enough. The fear can paralyze me. Once I have something on the page, it may need polishing, revision, rearranging and so on, but it’s always better than I thought it was going to be. Based on existing evidence, I’m a decent writer, often quite a good writer. But it always feels like the next few lines of my fiction will be the worst words ever written. Too often I sit there struggling and do not write them. *sigh*