Overcoming Perfectionism

4 thought on “Overcoming Perfectionism”

1. SO TRUE Lynn!! I have that myself as I write scenes of some of my ancestors. I look it over..tweek a bit but I keep feeling it is never good enough just yet to show the family. Several times at family gatherings I have read out a piece that I had worked on and everyone said they liked it. However, afterwards I wondered if I had made it “perfect” enough…could I have worked more on it before I put it out to them or If I did would it have even more impact. Anyway, thanks Lynn…your comment that there are no perfect writers and no perfect stories made me feel so much better. Upward and onward and thank you very, very much for Storylines.

2. Lynn, thank you for saving your video lessons on your home page. I have inadvertently deleted some of your tips which caused me no end of grief. I’ve just discovered them on your home page and would like to suggest you advise your viewer they are located there.

   Also I’d like to know if your Inner Circle will be continuing once you have announced your Masterclass lessons. I was waiting until September 2019 to join the class. Summer is a busy time and I thought others in the class may not be available to critique during the summer.

   Recently I shared a creative non fiction scene with my writing group. My group said it was fiction. I had researched my scene from original records as well as reading other peoples journals pertaining to the time frame and knew my information was accurate. Needless to say I was devastated. I’m not sure if I will continue sharing my writing with this group thus my query about the Inner Circle.

   Thank you for your weekly inspirational videos, I for one look forward to reading them even if I accidently delete them.

3. Lynn- Thank you for this important boost. Your ideas today are bringing me closer to finishing a piece that I have found difficult to finish because I want it to be perfect. Thank you for that. I will probably listen to this talk again because of its effectiveness for me. At the same time I wonder about one of the elements within your talk. I wonder if you would expand upon the place that a writing community can play in helping to let go of perfectionism. We have something going on in ours that seems to do the opposite. It seems to stifle writing by encouraging perfectionism as you have described it. My writing group has been meeting for many years. It has in it a couple of people who go to workshops where they meet together for just a few times, are encouraged to give negative criticism, and then they part. They do not develop lasting relationships with each other in these groups. In them, the emphasis is on quick writing, and swift critique. These workshops tend to bring out meanness in them which they then bring to our group. These two people seem to have lost interest in listening for the meaning of a piece that is read by their long-time friends in our group, and often miss the point entirely. Meaning seems to me to be the most important thing, and for me, all critique needs to come from an understanding of meaning. That means that the critic within a group like ours must ask the writer clarifying questions to help the writer to get closer to their meaning, not to blast the writer with negative statements based on how they are taught to behave in the workshops they have attended. It seems to me that this blasting method is more about the critique than it is about getting at the writers intent and meaning. This behavior ignores the fact that a writer does want to express something important, and just needs a few nudges in the right direction. I would like to hear from you more about the elements of an effective writing group. Your talks always feel encouraging. You mention a writing community in this talk, so it seems that you know something about developing the best in a writer through writing community. If it is within the scope of your mission, I would like to hear what you know, and how you view the whole genre of writers’ workshops and their relationship to long-standing writing/friendship communities. Thank you!

4. Thank you….
   I’m just getting my story or stories started and looking for a lot of help!

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