No Pressure, but it has to be Perfect

As writers, we tend to strive for perfection. I can’t send my query until it is absolutely perfect. I can’t show this story until it is flawless.

That puts a lot of pressure on our already-stressed-from-lack-of-sleep minds.

My advice: Relax!

Not saying that you shouldn’t make your story the best that it can be. You most certainly should do that. You must grow and stretch yourself with every draft.

But don’t stress about making it perfect.

Here’s the big secret: It will never be exactly perfect.

No matter how much you tweak it and polish it, someone somewhere will find something wrong with it.

Don’t believe me? Go to Amazon or Goodreads or any other book-selling website and read the reviews of your favorite book.

It will surprise you how much people loath what you find to be awesome. I’m pretty sure there isn’t a book on this planet that everyone will love.

So when you are feeling the pressure to achieve perfection, take a step back (and perhaps a deep breath) and focus on what you’re doing right. Plan how to make it better and don’t be discouraged.

Awesome and perfection are not the same thing. Write an awesome book, not a perfect one.

Happy writing!

Near Disaster

A few months ago, the unthinkable happened. My computer shut off. That part wasn’t surprising. It had been on the fritz for a while. In fact, the power cord (Power Cord the Second) sometimes didn’t work and the battery had the lifespan of a fruit fly . . . in a jar . . . being shaken by a five year old.

So the power cord would be the slightest bit finicky and the battery would falter and little pink netbook would go black-screened. Fixing it was a matter of aligning the power cord with exact precision and turning the computer back on (hoping that nothing would jostle the cord that had been so carefully placed).

This time it didn’t work.

It turned on, but a screen came on saying there was a problem and inviting me to restart a different way.  I did.

Nothing was working.

Everything I tried led me back to the screen announcing there was a problem.

Now, I knew that little pink netbook was on its last leg, so I’d already planned to get a new computer. But I didn’t plan for such a quick crash. I hadn’t backed up my file for two weeks!

I have a friend who either likes computers or likes taking things apart (I can’t remember which), so moment later, little pink netbook is in pieces scattered across the living room. After two days of fretting, the files were finally retrieved. Thank goodness for friends who like computers or taking things apart!

Moral of the story: Backup! Backup! Backup! When was the last time you saved your novel on a source that wasn’t your computer?