Writing Isn't Perfect

Well, it's December 26. The Christmas Season is officially over. 

Or is it?

I don't know how Christmas unfolded in your family this year but a pesky bout of the flu left several presents unclaimed under our tree awaiting a visit for Christmas 2.0. Tomorrow, I'll be reluctantly heading out to purchase some clearance wrapping paper and cards for next year. Promises of snowy and icy weather have postponed (canceled?) my brother's waffle breakfast on Sunday. Then there's the friend who wisely schedules her annual holiday party for January, "when everything settles down." Except that means I have to keep my festive red sweater ready for a few more events.

So the holiday I thought was completed, isn't quite.

I find I have the same problem with my writing as I do holidays. Left to my own devices, I could probably refine, rewrite and rethink creative writing pieces indefinitely. I never seem ready to declare something done. In my mind, just one more edit will make it perfect.

Except writing isn't perfect.

This year I'm going to stop striving for that unachievable goal and start asking myself simpler questions. What point or emotion did I want this piece to share? Did I achieve that? Could I read this piece aloud to an audience and be proud of it?

I recently started working with an author who wrote about overthinking. Basically, getting stuck in a cycle of analyzing every detail of a situation and either being paralyzed into inaction or plunging into unhelpful action. This is me with my writing!

I think it's time to declare some pieces I've been worrying over for months (even years) as done and move on to something new. Maybe it's time to send a piece out into the world. Maybe working on a new piece will allow me to come back to this piece again with a fresh viewpoint. Either way, I refuse to allow myself to become trapped by one piece of writing.

This evening I'm starting a new piece of writing that is a bit different than anything I've written before. It may be good. It may be bad. It won't be perfect. But it will be something.

Jodi M. Webb writes from her home in the Pennsylvania mountains about everything from DIY projects to tea to butterflies. Stay tuned for more details about the new piece she's working on in 2026.  She's also a blog tour manager for WOW-Women on Writing. After a December break, she's returning to blogging at Words by Webb. 

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