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Is Perfectionism Killing Your Writing?

My blog covers the topic of content creation, and I focus a lot on creating good quality content. At the same time, many of my readers struggle with blogging consistently, so it’s no surprise that my ears perked up when I saw a post by Cliff Ravenscraft, the Podcast Answer Man, that answered a question by a man named Robert Duff. Robert called in because he felt that Cliff had given some conflicting advice.

You see, in a previous podcast episode, Cliff told listeners that they should produce “can’t live without content.” That’s a pretty tall order, because there is very little that people can’t live without!

To add to the angst of trying to create content that people can’t live without, previously Cliff has admonished his listeners about the importance of creating content consistently, and that instead of striving for perfectionism, you should do your best to just get your content out there.

Robert rightly questioned how you can do both, and Cliff gave what I felt was an excellent response. He stated that in the first 90 days of creating a new type of content to focus more on consistently creating content rather than trying to create perfect content.

During this 90-day period of time, as you focus on consistency, the content you create will improve and by the end of the 90-day period of time you’ll be creating “can’t live without” content.” At that time, start promoting your content.

This was great news to me, a perfectionist, and to those writers who struggle with perfectionism.

I’ve heard it said that we become like the people we spend time with, and one of the biggest recent blessings in my life has been working for and with some truly talented content creators. One of the best lessons I recently learned from one of them was to put my imperfect content out there.

This friend of mine started a podcast. In his very first episode, he made a mistake, right at the beginning of the episode. If it had been me, I would have edited that mistake out of it, but he left it in there, for all to hear. Though the mistake wasn’t intentional, leaving it in was.  He did this to model the importance of not allowing perfectionism to keep you from publishing your content.

Not only that, he found a clever way to incorporate that mistake into future podcast episodes, and this “mistake” is now a regular feature, and it makes me smile every time I hear it.

I don’t know about you, but I want to develop that same type of confidence in my writing, so that I’m not afraid to let others see my mistakes. In fact can even embrace mistakes in my writing and allow them to make my content better and unique.

It’s also important to note that my friend didn’t allow a public mistake to stop him. He’s recorded podcast episode after podcast episode, and each one is better than the one before.  In fact, he just recently passed the 90-day mark and people are coming to him for advice on podcasting.

This fits perfectly with the Cliff Ravenscraft’s  advice. Yes, strive to create “can’t live without” content, but don’t be too hard on yourself at the beginning. Focus on writing consistently, and the quality of your writing will improve.

QUESTION: Have you allowed perfectionism to keep you from blogging consistently? Are you willing to accept a 90-day challenge to write consistently, knowing that as you consistently produce content, your writing will improve?

 * Image credit: margolove (Creative Commons)

[stextbox id=”info”]This article was written by Rebecca Livermore, who is a blogger and virtual assistant with a specialty in social media and content marketing. Rebecca makes her home in Denver, Colorado, with her husband of 27 years. She’s the mother of 2 young adults, and mother-in-law to 1. Visit her blog at Professional Content Creation and follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest, or check out her free eCourse, 5 Secrets to Developing the Blogging Habit, if you need help blogging consistently.[/stextbox]

Comments

  1. says

    A helpful article, to be sure, Rebecca! 

    For me, blogging consistently is always an issue. It’s even more difficult now that I have two blogs running, have one book in the editing process with my publisher, and now starting a second book! I sometimes struggle with putting just anything up so that I can check my daily blogging “to do” list and say to myself, “At least you blogged today.” But am I creating valuable content or “mere” content?

    I have been thinking about challenging myself to start writing no less than 1,000 words per day. 500 words devoted to blogging (in the morning) and +500 devoted to writing books (in the evening). We’ll see, and I’ll let you know how it goes.Thanks for this wonderful post!

    • says

       Charles, I think we all struggle with this!

      I’m currently working on a content marketing campaign which means that I “should” be posting repurposed content multiple places — YouTube, SlideShare, EzineArticles, etc. This is actually a very effective way to drive traffic to a blog, but it’s very time consuming.

      So the struggle becomes one of trying to keep up with my blog and do all of the other content marketing on top of it.

      Your challenge sounds like a reasonable one to me and you will make good progress on both things if you do it even reasonably consistently.

      For me personally it would work better to schedule a set amount of time (e.g 1 hour in the morning on the blog and 1 hour in the evening on the book). The reason is that sometimes words flow easily and I can write 500 words really fast, but other times it’s like pulling teeth and takes a lot longer. It’s harder to fit the ones that take a lot longer into my schedule since that can be kind of unpredictable.

      • says

        Hmmm, setting a “time” instead of word count might be a better way to do it. That way, whether I write 200 words, or 2,000 words, I will have met my goal.

        Great idea, Rebecca!

        • says

           You’ll have to let me know if that works for you, Charles!

          I know a lot of writers have a certain number of words they shoot for each day, so that is certainly a valid way to do it. It just seems easier to me to set my goals based on what I can better control, and time, though at times difficult to control seems more within my control than the number of words I write.

          I would definitely make your time goal one that you can realistically do each day. For example, “at least 30 minutes in the morning on my blog and at least 30 minutes every evening on my book.” Only you know what is truly realistic for you, and it may be only 15 minutes twice a day.

          Adding in “at least” means you can do more on days you have more time and yet you still accomplish your goal if you do your minimum.

          There is something about accomplishing goals that motivates you to keep moving forward, which is why I think it’s important to make sure the goals are ones you can succeed at consistently.

  2. says

    I think if we leave some of the nuts and bolts in we come across as more human. My reading of Michael Hyatt is not to hang around thinking but to do and he does not hold back for perfect. When we engage in a lively discussion, we sometimes need to correct ourselves or our views change and we say so or we backtrack – the internet is so ‘now’ that it’s the same, I feel. That said, I’m having so much trouble letting go of my memoir and putting it out there!

    • says

       Bobbie, I agree that we come across as more human when we allow people to see that we are!

      One huge side benefit of that is that when we let people see that we are human, it encourages them to get out there themselves, rather than feeling like they have an unattainable standard to live up to.

      I do hope that you will let go and get what is in your heart and mind out there. You never know who needs to hear what you have to say, but I can guarantee you that there are people out there who do!

  3. says

    Rebecca, 

    You speak to my heart.  Perfectionism has kept me on the sidelines wishing I could have what I see others have.  Thanks for this post!!

    ~H

    • says

      Heidi, like you, I’ve stayed on the sidelines many times due to fear of failure. I’ve been very fortunate in recent years to have made some progress in this area.

      Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving a comment. I appreciate it!

      Rebecca

  4. says

    I’ve been thinking about this same thing, Rebecca. And how as a blogger, I can really help people with the content I write. 
    To answer you question, no, I have abandoned perfectionism and focused on living in reality with grace. 🙂

  5. says

    Wonderful post Rebecca!  Thank you so much for the mention and I’m so incredibly thankful that anything that I have said has inspired you.   Thanks for sharing this important message with the world.

    • says

       Thanking so much for stopping by, Cliff! You are very welcome, and yet I must say that I am sharing it in large part because you shared it first! So thanks for inspiring me and for putting yourself out there on a regular basis. I appreciate it!

  6. says

    Thanks for covering this topic Rebecca. Cliff inspired me to podcast again, but I didn’t want to start recording until I had the right equipment. My brother said that was just an excuse and so we recorded our podcast anyway. Now we have 9 episodes recorded and even though the sound is not Ravenscraft great we did it.We had so much fun and realized that perfectionism is an excuse to not get started.

    • says

       Bill,

      It’s amazing to me how easy it is to want to wait for the perfect time or circumstances to do things, and “perfect” seldom, if ever, shows up on our doorstep.

      Congratulations to you on getting your podcast started in spite of not having everything in place as well as you’d like.

      9 podcast episodes is nothing to sneeze at, and in fact, I believe I’ve heard Cliff say that once you get 10 done, you’re much more likely to keep going. So one more and you’ll be over the hump!

      Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. I wish you the best with your podcast and everything else!

      Rebecca

  7. says

    This is great, as usual.  I massively struggle with perfectionism and it just paralyzes me from writing or doing anything.  Thanks for this great post.

    • says

       Pilar,

      I think the two of us are alike in a lot of ways, with perfectionism being one of the ways. Perfectionism really can paralyze people from writing, which is why I wanted to write this post.

      I have a partly written blog post that I need to publish on my blog tomorrow morning, and I’m not too happy with how it’s turning out. Now I do need to edit it some and make it better, but I’m going to choose to not spend crazy amounts of time on it, and am also going to choose to publish it even if it just doesn’t seem as good as I’d like it to be.

      A funny thing that I’ve observed is that sometimes the posts that I’m less thrilled with speak to more people and the ones that I think are great sometimes land with a thud!

      This just goes to show that we need to simply write faithfully and consistently, and leave the results of the writing up to God!

  10. says

    I really needed to hear this advice. Sometimes when my readership doesn’t amp up as quickly as I’d like I blamed myself for my lack of killer content. Recently I decided to lay aside my fear and create the time to blog 5 days per week every week. This single act has increased my readership more than any other. Yea for freedom from perfectionism!