Never Settle

In the seventh grade I had a Geography teacher who everyone was afraid of. I was told that he was strict and that the class would be especially difficult because he was teaching it. Naturally, on my first day of school, I was nervous.

My teacher had high expectations for a group of twelve year olds, it’s true, but they weren’t impossible to meet. You see, he told us he lived by a Japanese motto that said there is no such thing as perfection because whatever you do can always be better. It may sound harsh, but when implemented into his grading system it meant if he thought you deserved it, you could earn more than 100%.

You’d think that a perfectionist myself would hate a system in which you could never reach perfection, but I thrived off of it. It became a competition—what was the highest grade I could get? I spent hours on a project that many of my classmates spent minutes on. I worked hard and it paid off—there was more than one occasion when I received marks of 125% or more.  

Nostalgia aside, I think my Geography teacher was onto something. You see, he didn’t mean that our work would never be good enough for high marks, he meant quite the opposite—that we should never settle for just “good enough.” That we can always improve and we should never stop reaching for better.

You can apply this to almost anything, but as this is a writing blog, I’m going to apply to Butterbeer cupcakes. You can’t get better than that.

Kidding! Though those cupcakes look pretty delicious, I must say.

Err, anyway. Writing. Right.

Now before you think I’m contradicting what I said before about the Never-Ending Editing Syndrome (and I’m totally not), allow me to explain myself. Although editing is indeed the time that you improve your writing in whatever WIP you’re working on, I’m not talking about just one project.

When I say never settle for “good enough,” I don’t just mean a WIP (although that’s certainly part of it), I mean your writing as a whole.

I don’t care if you’re a NYT Bestselling author with six-figure advances. There is always room for improvement. Always. Your craft isn’t something you should ever allow to plateau—strive to improve every day, read books about writing, critique others work, have people critique your work, look for ways to pull your writing apart and make it better.

Every day is a day that you can get better at what you do. Never settle for enough talent, enough practice, enough anything.

You can always get better.

I read writing books all the time. And re-read them with highlighters. And re-read them again with different highlighters. What are your favorite books about the craft?  

NEESA

Welcome to Never-Ending Editing Syndrome Anonymous, also known as The Writing Group that Suffers From WAIT I CAN’T SEND THAT OUT YET IT’S NOT READY YOU CAN’T MAKE ME STOP EDITING *CLING*!

*ehem.* As this is our first meeting, and I understand we’re all feeling a little uncomfortable, I will break the ice. *deep breath.*

Hi. My name is Ava Jae and…and I suffer from Never-Ending Editing Syndrome. There. I said it. Wow, I actually said it.

Now many of you are probably wondering what Never-Ending Editing Syndrome is and how you magically arrived at this meeting, when you have no memory of signing up for such an event. As the latter is not really that important, I’ll just address the former.

There are many symptoms associated with Never-Ending Editing Syndrome. If you suffer from more than one of these, you probably are infected:

·         Telling friends, family and anyone who will listen that you’ve finished your final edits of your WIP only to resume editing a few weeks (or days) later.

·         Asking beta readers if they could look over a few chapters again because the version they read was three or four drafts ago.

·         Moving that deadline over because it’s “just not ready.”

·         Panicking after you send out an excerpt and doing another emergency edit even though it’s already too late and—AW CRAP IS THAT A TYPO?!

·         Inexplicable sobbing.

·         Recurring nightmares of that rejection or scathing review because of a misplaced comma on page fifty-seven.

Now of course, you are probably wondering what the cure is. So am I. Let me know when you find one.

UNTIL THEN! There ARE ways to fight it. It’s difficult, I know, and sometimes it takes a little pushing from someone else. But NEES is NOT a death sentence and it CAN be overcome!

Here are some strategies:

•        Stick to your goals. This means not allowing yourself to push a deadline over. When you hit the deadline, guess what? You’ve met the deadline. Stop editing. Like now. I see you still reading. STOP!
•       Trust your beta readers and critique partners. If you have a critique partner that rips your work to shreds and points out every glaring plot hole, good. Hold on to them. They’re invaluable. After they’ve gone through your manuscript and you’ve made the necessary changes, trust your readers. Chances are, they enjoyed your book, so don’t make any more changes. I know it’s tempting. Really, I do. BUT STOP MAKING CHANGES!
•       Complete this sentence: I will be done editing when ________. Now fill in the blank. Maybe when you get five positive responses from betas. Maybe when you’ve made your cardboard antagonist sympathetic. Maybe when your writing isn’t pretty anymore (more on that later). Regardless of what your overall goal is, fill in the blank and still to it. The only unacceptable answer is “perfect.” DON’T FILL IN THE BLANK WITH “PERFECT” OR I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND DROWN YOU IN SPARKLY CONFETTI!

Finally, remember this: your book doesn’t have to be perfect, just enjoyable. No one’s book is perfect. NO ONE’S. No one expects yours to be, either. Make it the best you can, then let it go.

Do you suffer from NEES? What symptoms have I missed? What other strategies do you suggest?