Not the Post You’re Waiting For

I didn’t meet my posting goal this week.

It wasn’t that unattainable a goal, actually– I set my posting schedule to one post per week.

So, why, I wonder, didn’t I make it? Of course, there are always excuses.

I’m a mother of two. And what Katherine Anne Paterson says on this topic resonates well with me:

“I had no study in [the early] days, not even a desk or file or bookcase to call mine alone . . . It might have happened sooner [the writing of work worthy of publication] had I had a room of my own and fewer children, but somehow I doubt it. For as I look back on what I have written, I can see that the very persons who took away my time and space are those who have given me something to say.”

Still, I don’t think this cherished role, nor my others, exempts me from this minimal posting responsibility.

So why is it? In my quest to figure out this issue, I did the response log magic technique, which is a writing technique I teach at InQuell. Thankfully, it led me to the root of my procrastination: I need my pieces to be perfect.

This is my confession. My written works must be perfect before they could see the light of cyberspace.

Interestingly, on the day I made this observation, I came across an article by Megan McArdle, titled “Why Writers Are the Worst Procrastinators” on this writing blog. In her excellent article that had me nodding all the way through, the author lists a host of reasons why writers tend to do anything but produce work. The excuse that resonated most with me was that writers are always afraid their pieces haven’t yet reached the level of perfection they set for themselves.

Because I have this desire, this need, to do a perfect job, I keep putting off the work for who knows when… for when this magic perfectionistic ability will course through my being and onto the page (which, of course, is never).

So, because I must learn to untwist my all-or-nothing thinking (because, after all, this is a large part of what I teach at InQuell…) I write this post now. Even if I haven’t yet decided what exactly I want to share with you today, I write, because I have a goal that I must meet.

Sorry. This is not the perfect post. It is not the post that culminates into something beautiful, something you can take away with you even after you forgot that you ever read this piece.

That’s because I’m learning that good work is perfect enough for me.

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Does this perfectionism/procrastination relationship resonate with you? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below! Then we can work out a writing technique that will help us solve this work impeding problem.