When Well Enough is Best Left Well Alone; or, Confessions of a Serial Rewriter - Mari Biella
One of my major problems in life is that I’m rarely satisfied. Nothing is ever really big enough, exciting enough, or good enough for my liking. Far from being the motivating factor that some might think, this is in fact something of a curse. Whoever said that the key to a happy life was having low expectations was absolutely right. This perfectionism is never more pronounced than in my writing. Frankly, the things I write are never good enough. There’s a sense, of course, in which this is an advantage; I’d never hit that “Publish” button unless I was absolutely satisfied that the work in question represented my best effort. There is, however, a downside. If you hold to the principle that perfection is unattainable in this life, then revision and rewriting are, theoretically, infinite tasks. It could always be better in some way. There is, therefore, a danger that you might spend years – decades, perhaps – going over the same ground, trying desperately to get it just righ...