How to deal with perfectionism?

[KoolAidDogan]

It's hard to offer much besides some platitudes (even more so since I'm not an author), but if you're getting stuck in the drafting stage of writing... Well, you can only really do the best you can for so long before you start to see diminishing returns for your effort. 50+ rewrites and nothing you're satisfied with should probably be a sign that you just need to bite the bullet on whatever you've got and then start writing chapters to build off of. 'Shaky foundations' only really matter if you're actually building something, and the worst-case scenario is that you'll have some external input for the next time you want to rewrite... or when the 'building crumbles,' to keep up the analogy.

Or you could post whatever outline for the story you have here and let people give some insights on what they think you could do? I'm not really sure how averse you'd be to essentially posting spoilers for your own story, even if it was just the bare bones of the story's trajectory, so disregard this suggestion if it's not something you could see yourself doing.

Sidenote: If me not being an actual author means I shouldn't be posting here, I'll remove this comment. orz

 

[doravg]

50 Rewrites? O.o
You could have honestly written 50 books in that time. It simply boggles the mind.
The question is, why do you want for the book to be perfect? Have you ever written the first draft to the end? It took you on a journey, and... you didn't accept that?
I can't understand you.
But if you want to get a different point of view from someone whose books did sell, unlike mine, you can always check Writing into the Dark by Dean Wesley Smith. It helped me write book after book without looking back. Yes, my books are not perfect, but they are many and complete. I learn something new with every book. I let the book take me on a journey, and it is fun.
Maybe you should start writing for yourself, instead of for others.
50 Rewrites... O.o

 

[LilRora]

I'm not sure if it'll work for you as well as it did for me, but the way I dealt with my dose of perfectionism was to write a story spontaneously. I got an idea, wrote it down, and went on from there with what seemed to flow nicely. Then moved on to another plot point.

Granted, it's definitely not a good method if you want detailed plot and intricate worldbuilding, but doing this just once will give you a new perspective and hopefully help with writing new stories. Generally, treat it as practice and don't try to make it as good as you possibly can, but as fast as you realistically can.

 

[Shyuurin]

I actually found it helpful reading through everyone's responses here. Was going through a perfectionist meltdown just this morning.

 

[MintiLime]

I set a word count goal and go by the seat of my pants. I have outline plots for everything, but how it gets there depends on my mood that day.

Think about it, if your characters were real people they’d be dealing with the situation real time, not planning their words to be relevant 20 yrs later. What would be relevant to your character? What would they remember? Focus on that and the broad plot and it should be ok.

Grammar and all that can be edited even after the chapter is published. Technique gets better with time and practice, no way to skip the process.

 

[Lloyd]

I just don't write.

 

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

You're supposed to aim for well done not over done.