On Perfectionism
…and 3 ways for writers to overcome it. Plus some free writing classes and an exceptional Writeshare Night.
The most successful captain in the history of Australian rugby union is the legendary John Eales, renowned for seemingly never making a mistake on the field. His teammates nicknamed him Nobody because “Nobody’s perfect”.
It’s one of the best sporting nicknames ever, topped only by the sobriquet bestowed upon footballer Kiki Musampa by his Manchester City teammates: Chris.
Chris Musampa. Say it out loud. Geddit?
I brought up John Eales’ magnificent moniker because Caversham Writers member Amy forwarded a newsletter to me the other day from Deadlines for Writers, in which the author Mia Botha shares the following quote:
“Big projects require low standards” -Amie McNee
McNee is talking about lowering the bar for entry, I think. Giving yourself permission to overcome the imposter syndrome stopping you from starting a big project in the first place.
Mia’s newsletter was about the curse of perfectionism, about how the creative process can be stifled by our inner critic, that voice telling us not to write another word until you’ve perfected the last sentence. She goes on to say that 2026 will be the year in which she will put progress over perfection.
I can relate to the problem. Many years ago I took one of those psychological personality profile tests. It categorised me as a Mechanic, which turned out not be as prosaic as it sounds. This profile sat squarely between two other dominant profiles, that of Creator and Analyst. One of the weaknesses of Mechanics is down to the conflict between Creator and Analyst - namely, that we are perfectionists who worry about getting it wrong from the outset, so are not good at starting stuff from scratch and are often slow to complete things.
I feel seen. It took me a year of procrastinating to even start this newsletter. In my freelancing day job, I decided a year ago to pivot to serving a new target market, but I’m still getting my ducks in a row before leaping.
In the end, it will just be a leap. It’s how I started this newsletter. I sent out the first one before I was ready and trusted myself to make it work. Once committed, you find a way. This is now the 74th week of the Caversham Writers Substack and I’ve yet to miss a Friday issue.
But is that all there is to it, just closing your eyes and jumping? What other practical steps can you take to get past perfectionism? Try these three methods.
Build up a tolerance of ‘messy’ first drafts. Set aside time to write without consequence, but do it regularly so you get used to writing this way. 15 minutes every morning to write something other than your WIP, something that doesn’t need to be right first time. Do it longhand and don’t force it into a coherent structure. Stream of consciousness works well here, just get words down. Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages is a good method to follow.
Share it early. Steel yourself and share ‘imperfect’ work with trusted writing friends. Getting good and constructive feedback will help rewire the way you think about the need for perfection. Where do you find trusted writing friends? Caversham Writers’ Writeshare Night events! See the summary below of the one we held this week.
Find a way to make it work for you. Instead of fighting against it, this involves reframing it and turning the tendency into an advantage rather than a drawback. By way of an example, a couple of years ago Will Carver came to talk to Caversham Writers. I was asking him about his writing process, does he set any daily word count targets, that kind of thing. Will told me he used to try and write 2000 words a day, but found when he sat down the next day to write he’d edit those 2000 words down to about 500 before starting on the new day’s target. It felt wasteful, so he changed his approach - he would instead write a tight 500 words each day that he was happy with, editing as he went. That sounds slower and less productive but he found that finishing a first draft this way meant he didn’t need to do as much rewriting in subsequent edits. The whole process from first word to final draft ended up being much quicker overall.
If you’re a perfectionist and you feel it’s stifling your creativity, go off and do this right now to start addressing the problem:
“Write something deliberately imperfect for ten minutes — and don’t fix a word.”
Free Writing Classes
The Deadlines for Writers newsletter also listed 3 free writing classes that may be of interest to you.
Writing Romance: An Introduction
Thursday, 26 February 2026
Ever thought about writing romance, but wondered what actually sells?
In this class, Anthony Ehlers unpacks the $1.5 billion Harlequin Mills & Boon phenomenon, a global powerhouse selling 130 million novels every year.
Forensic Pathology for Crime Writers
Thursday, 26 March 2026
How Forensic Pathology Can Strengthen Crime and Thriller Writing
In this class, Dr Yaseen offers writers practical insight into how autopsies and forensic pathology actually function in real investigations.
The Plain Plot Club
Thursday, 23 April 2026
Join Mia as she discusses and breaks down the structures and plots of bestsellers.
The Strangers’ Case
Watch this. I guarantee it will be the highlight of your week. If you’re not standing and applauding at the end of this we are going to have to re-evaluate our friendship.
Member News
On Tuesday 10th February the talk at Reading Geek Night features Caversham Writers member (and Legendary Poet) Richard Stephenson.
“Join Richard Stephenson for fascinating exploration into the strangest geopolitical anomalies across Europe and beyond, where history and geography collide in unexpected ways. You will discover the lighthearted "Whiskey War" over Hans Island, a peaceful "conflict" where Canada and Denmark have spent decades taking turns "invading" the land to exchange bottles of spirits...and much more!”
With Richard as the speaker you can be sure it’ll be an informative and entertaining evening.
Our Last Meeting
Writeshare Night - Read Your Work To The Group
I was blown away by the quality of the pieces members shared at this event.
Louise went first with further tales of Izzy, her serial killer who first emerged from a prompted writing session we held at Fourbears Books. This time we had some backstory from when Izzy was 17 and dealing with a teenage relationship… badly.
Carmen followed with another chapter from her deconstructionist novel set in Carnac, France, pulling off the difficult job of conveying the sense of a confusing and dreamlike sequence of events for multiple characters without actually confusing the reader. As Sammy commented in the chat, “I was happily swept away.” Me too.
Suni read an excerpt from her story set in LA, which started off with a ‘day in the life’ feel to it, following main character Erin as she sets off for work. Things then take a darker turn with a supernatural twist that I wasn’t expecting. Good stuff!
Finally, I want to thank Zina for sharing a piece that clearly took a great deal of courage to write and to read out loud to the group. We heard a deeply personal essay exploring her own experience of two wars, and a third one that was waged much closer to home. It was a powerful piece of narrative non-fiction, one that affected us all on the night.
I mentioned in response that I could see this being published in a magazine or newspaper and it leading to an offer to write more, perhaps a full memoir. This begged the question of how to go about doing that.
So here’s a post by Amy Suto on How (& Why) to Pitch Personal Essays.
I would also recommend an excellent book called The Byline Bible by Susan Shapiro:
Over the last two decades, writing professor Susan Shapiro has taught more than 25,000 students of all ages and backgrounds at NYU, Columbia, Temple, The New School, and Harvard University. Now in The Byline Bible she reveals the wildly popular "Instant Gratification Takes Too Long" technique she's perfected, sharing how to land impressive clips to start or re-launch your career.
In frank and funny prose, the bestselling author of 12 books walks you through every stage of crafting and selling short nonfiction pieces. She shows you how to spot trendy subjects, where to start, finish and edit, and divulges specific steps to submit work, have it accepted, get paid, and see your byline in your favorite publication in lightning speed.
Next Week's Meeting
Writes & Bites - an in person social event!
Wednesday, Feb 11 · 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM GMT
This is our regular social event for members to meet and chat over a meal at a local restaurant. This time we’re going to Las Iguanas.
Numbers are limited for this event, as we have to manage a reservation with the restaurant and keep it manageable. There is a waitlist if you want to sign up, but otherwise keep an eye on our Meetup events page for when we announce the next Writes & Bites event.
Free To Join, Free To Attend
As you know Caversham Writers is free to join and free to attend and I want it to remain so. That doesn’t mean it is free to run, though. I organise the group meetings on Meetup.com who have seen fit to double the fees paid by group organisers over the last year.
This has led to many groups shutting down or moving platform. I like to think of Caversham Writers as a local group with a global reach and I want us to remain open to voices from all over the world. Meetup provides that global reach so I intend to stay there, but would welcome any contributions toward the costs of running the group.
So if you enjoy this free newsletter and our weekly free events, please consider helping out by buying me a coffee at the link below.
giving yourself limited time to write is another way out of perfection is'. common at place like Caversham Writers prompt night. you only had 45 mins from prompt to reading, so no one expects perfection