In Constant Pursuit of Perfection

HeyAll!!!! Wow, huge fan of your work. Just saying. I've had a lot of good advice ever since I started this thread. SimonDoom was my first, in fact; to reply, that is. Here are a few of the things I've learned here:

* Perfection is unobtainable, and even so as SimonDoom says, "what's perfect for one author may not be perfect for another". Everyone reads and interprets a little differently. And making this "too perfect" and I absolutely agree, HeyAll, that it should read like a movie to the reader. Some of my favorite books, like the Night Angel trilogy, have played out like movies I'd want to see; perhaps why so many books become movies.

* Enjoy the process, not just the product.

* When you're stuck, do something else until you feel that muse return. In my case, that means a morning stroll before I sit in front of my computer.

* Making love in the dark is sometimes a fun adventure, like mini golf you may not end up in the hole you're aiming for. Kidding, I just threw that in there to see if people are reading this.

* A writer should write what they want, rather than second guess their readers.

* Not all writer's can churn out a rough draft, without being nagged by flaws they notice. Ignoring those flaws, until the story is ready for editing.

* Writing erotica is much easier and more exciting without pants...and panties. So, basically naked. Except my robe, I do love my robe.

* Skipping the part you're stuck on and working on another part is a good way to move past "writer's block".

* Running things by a group of seasoned writers is undoubtedly the smartest thing I've done. Thank you to everyone I truly am grateful to have your feedback and to learn from your experiences. I have learned all of this and more.
 
Writers block. That's why I now have about 30 stories sitting on my hard drive, all well over 6K words and I'm having a hard time getting them to the finish line. I know where they have to wind up, I just can't get the middle to go there.

So I start another story that came to while struggling with the last one. Then I look at them all and pick one. Of course I have to reread it to figure out what I already did and by the time I get to the where I left off I'm bored silly.

I'll finish one of them soon though, I know I will. One day. Maybe two. *sigh*
 
Though it is clear you have already been enlightened I could only think of one thing when I first began reading this thread.

Perfection is for the cemetery.

That quote I've seen in this IT boss lady's office and it is so appropriate for writing among other things. But its cool, you've gotten it so just write. get it good, polish it a little more and release it.
And only worry a little bit once its out there. You've done your part and its time for the readers to do theirs.
 
i've given up on the pursuit of perfection. i've decided to drag everyone else down to my level.
 
I can't remember who said this, but it does pertain:

"Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good."
 
Inevitably...

I'll publish a chapter, thinking it's about as good as I can make it. After it's been published, of course, I think of endless ways it could have been improved upon.

Most of the time, I just shrug and move on, but I'm actually rebooting an entire story series I've been submitting on here for three years now, because overhauling it will improve the entire thing by a factor of five hundred.

Sometimes, it's okay to reboot a continuity. It works for DC Comics. And I'm not suggesting that Michelangelo should have redone the statue of David, because my story is not the statue of David. If it is, it's the DAS modelling clay version, done by a five year-old with melted crayons for paint.

Where was I going with this?

Sometimes it's okay to throw the baby out with the bathwater. It's an erotic lit website, so keep the water dirty, just have a better-looking baby next time around.

'Perfection is a road, not a destination.'

- Chiun
 
Your comment highlights the fact that perfection isn't just a matter of degree -- i.e., how perfect do you want to try to be -- but a matter of what you are trying to accomplish with your story. Some authors may fuss over words but neglect the story. Other authors write very tight storylines and have good crisp dialogue but don't fuss too much over prose style.

What's "perfect" for you is very different from what's "perfect" for another author.

I would describe myself as also seeing my story visually, and wanting the reader to be able to see it that way, but I also fuss over turns of phrase, and at times I hope the reader can slow down and appreciate the words by themselves and not just as a vehicle for propelling the story forward. Everybody is different, thank goodness.

That's a good point too. I'm not a technical master or anything, so my standard of writing is about average. The good thing with that is that I'm easy to please, I guess.

If it makes sense, easy to visualize, nicely written not-repatative, looks great, then I move on.

If someone has a massive repertoire of words and phrases, that could be a problem. But it's not a problem I've ever had.



HeyAll!!!! Wow, huge fan of your work. Just saying. I've had a lot of good advice ever since I started this thread. SimonDoom was my first, in fact; to reply, that is. Here are a few of the things I've learned here:

* Perfection is unobtainable, and even so as SimonDoom says, "what's perfect for one author may not be perfect for another". Everyone reads and interprets a little differently. And making this "too perfect" and I absolutely agree, HeyAll, that it should read like a movie to the reader. Some of my favorite books, like the Night Angel trilogy, have played out like movies I'd want to see; perhaps why so many books become movies.

* Enjoy the process, not just the product.

* When you're stuck, do something else until you feel that muse return. In my case, that means a morning stroll before I sit in front of my computer.

* Making love in the dark is sometimes a fun adventure, like mini golf you may not end up in the hole you're aiming for. Kidding, I just threw that in there to see if people are reading this.

* A writer should write what they want, rather than second guess their readers.

* Not all writer's can churn out a rough draft, without being nagged by flaws they notice. Ignoring those flaws, until the story is ready for editing.

* Writing erotica is much easier and more exciting without pants...and panties. So, basically naked. Except my robe, I do love my robe.

* Skipping the part you're stuck on and working on another part is a good way to move past "writer's block".

* Running things by a group of seasoned writers is undoubtedly the smartest thing I've done. Thank you to everyone I truly am grateful to have your feedback and to learn from your experiences. I have learned all of this and more.

Thanks!

And the other thing is, you need an idea you love. If you love it, writing is fun and the ideas come to you.

I just finished two stories that I really really love.

Now I'm working on another story, but I don't love the story just yet, so working on it is a drag until I find that magic 'thing' which makes it super hot, then I'll love it. Then the rest of the ideas will come and writing will be fun and easy.
 
My first suggestion would probably be the hardest: Give yourself permission to write poorly. Write through the pain, get to the otherside, and then edit the shit out of the crap you wrote. If nothing else, it keeps you going.

For me, a writer's block typically appears whenever I've written myself into a corner. I write to discover the story and my characters. I loosely know where I'm going, but I eagerly explore many deadends during the writing process to see where they go.

Quite often, I wind up retracing my steps, often scrapping thousands of words as I realize Bugs Bunny had it right: "shoulda took a left at Albuquerque."

Good luck!
 
Writers Block

I always have several stories going at once, and in different phases of completion. When I am "blocked" in one story, I work on the characters for another, or I edit a draft that I have yet to write an ending for. As I cycle through the stories I have saved, I will begin to break the block and complete the one giving me the most trouble. There are a few that I have simply stopped writing for various reasons, but for me, this isn't about publishing stories, it's about becoming a better writer. It's all process.
 
👰

If the characters are ready then the story is, too.
They won’t behave perfectly (certainly in this genre) and if they did then the plot would be easy to see coming and would tie up too nicely. Some of my favorite books and stories don’t have endings at all.
 
Perfect! There is nothing in this world that is perfect. I forgot who said that. Maybe is was my mother or a teacher I had once.

I know I'm not perfect. I would like to be, but I know I can't be.

So I do my best and persevere. I write what I want, when I want and as good as I can. If there are mistakes or typos, get over it. If you tell me about them I will correct them. If you tell me to get a proof reader, I'll ask you to be my proof reader, but first I'll read one of your stories and tell you how imperfect you are.

I had a keyboard professor tell me to get a proof reader. I went and read one of his stories and within the first paragraph found three errors. If you live in a glass house, don't throw stones.

No one is perfect nor can anyone achieve perfection. Although I have seen several women with what I consider to be perfect bodies. But then beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I know, I know, a lot of cliches. ;)
 
Zeb_Carter--Writer's block does suck. I know what it's like when the middle of the story won't budge, that's pretty much the hole I had written myself into. But, I believe you can finish those one or two or even thirty stories. "Writing is easy" is the biggest misconception I get from my non-writing friends and relatives. As true writers can attest, writing not so simple. Sometimes writing, especially a longer piece, can be like a soldier crawling through the mud and under barbed wire, pushing through is the only way to succeed.

rutger5, rae121452, and Athalia-- I like those. I should sticky those phrases to my desk. I have a few sayings and quotes on sticky notes that help inspire me.

BiscuitHammer--Exactly. Then, I never know how it will be received my the audience, because in my mind there were so many ways I could've improved it; but in reality, I could be wrong, it could be a flawed perspective. It reminds me of a meme I saw about the creative process. It goes something like this:
The Creative Process
Stage 1: This is good
Stage 2: This is awesome
Stage 3: This is shit
Stage 4: I am shit
Stage 5: This might be okay
Stage 6: This is awesome

HeyAll--KeithD had mentioned how sometimes the Muse will drop in the middle of a story. It's not always easy to stick with it and finish a story, if the love of the story has faltered. Maintaining that Muse, that love of the characters you created, their lives present in your prose, that to me is the key to not losing interest. So, I have developed a system to serve as my source of inspiration, my Muse (or 12 Muses really). They inspire me to continue writing with the occasional writing challenge. So far, I managed to complete the work I was stuck on my using 2 of these Muses and following some of the advice from the great people here.

BuckyDuckman--Writing poorly, ignoring the spelling errors, not fretting over the minor details, I think those would absolutely help me push through the tough parts. My biggest problem, as noted by my creation of this thread, is focusing so much on how I can make everything perfect for readers. I love to please people and I hate to disappoint them, so I try to give my best every time. However, that often stops me from progressing. I forgot who said it now, but someone posted something like "If you don't write anything, then nothing would get read". That really struck a chord with me. I have since managed to get beyond the chapter that plagued me and with all of this advice I've received, I don't expect to be stuck again.

Cockhole--Cycling through works is one of the ways I've found to remain productive. I have a set 4 hours (sometimes 5+ if I wake up early enough, my girlfriend demands my time after 12noon) and within that timeframe the idea is to write as much as possible. On a good day, I can write 3,000 words (very rarely), I could typically maintain 1k-2k, but on a bad day I sometimes write 100-500 words (or nothing at all). I have a handful of projects that I can switch between after reading a detailed synopsis to put me back in place.

LightningSeed--Endings are undoubtedly my weakest point. Maybe ending a series without a proper ending would be the best course of action.

Zeb_Carter (2)-- No, I am by no means perfect. What I really meant by this thread is that shooting for perfection, because I want so badly to make something 'perfect' for readers, is causing me to stall and write nothing. Getting beyond the idea that everything I write needs to be absolutely perfect for the audience is the only way I can move forward. I like what BuckyDuckman said about allowing myself to write poorly, not to worry about the perfect word, or phrase, or substitute for a part of the female anatomy. Just write and edit the crap out of it later. That's literally the best solution to my problem, along with skipping parts in which have left me uninspired, going out for a walk when I can't concentrate, and really so much more advice I had been given here.
 
I can't remember who said this, but it does pertain:

"Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good."

A paraphrase of Voltaire, I believe.

It ain't no crime to strive for perfection, just as it ain't no crime to see how long you can hold your breath. But holding your breath isn't what breathing is all about.

if you want to write, just write.
 
I can't remember who said this, but it does pertain:

"Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good."

A paraphrase of Voltaire, I believe.

It ain't no crime to strive for perfection, just as it ain't no crime to see how long you can hold your breath. But holding your breath isn't what breathing is all about.

if you want to write, just write.
 
I have a vast imagination and a personal diary to draw all the writing inspiration I would need to prevent writer’s block. Finding time to write, that’s a different story altogether
🌹Kant👠👠👠
 
I don't want to be purfect, I'd much rather be woofect, I have a much greater affinity with dogs.
 
I have a vast imagination and a personal diary to draw all the writing inspiration I would need to prevent writer’s block. Finding time to write, that’s a different story altogether
🌹Kant👠👠👠

I have 68 years of experience and 46 years of marriage experience to draw from. I have lived all over the US and been to many foreign lands. Some for longer than a couple weeks. And I still get writers block, but not really. I can always start a new story, but sometimes the middle gets off track and it's hard to repair said track for a while. That's when the new story gets started.

Currently, I have like 30 started, half of which are almost done and the other 90% stuck somewhere in the middle. ;):devil:
 
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