Tip #4: Don't Panic.

Tip #4: Don't panic.

The flip side to the impatient tossing off a first (or second) draft is done is nitpicking over every little line. Sure, that's how some great writers made their work so great, but if you're reading this blog, you're probably not a national celebrity for your writing skills.

All writing can be improved. Write that line in big, friendly yellow letters and paste it to your desk lamp. Whenever you realize you've spent the past hour fretting over imperfections in a few (hundred?) words of text, stare at those words and comfort yourself that yes, it can be improved.

Then move on to writing the next section

What??!! Leave your baby in its imperfect state, deformed and unable to walk on its own?

Yep. You've heard of braces, right? Braces guide and support a deformed thing till it approximates what it's supposed to be. Sometimes the approximation is closer to perfection than others. In my case, my orthodontist brought me a good bit of imperfection plus TMJ. At least my jaw's in the correct location, though.

That's your purpose as a writer: you're the braces for your writing. There comes a point where you have to let it go. Different writers end up having different criteria for what works for them, but if you find yourself naggling over a comma, get a move on to your next gestating project.

Writing improves through practice. You can't improve if you're constantly stuck fixing one thing.

The best critique comes from other people, anyway.