I am your classic perfectionist, and I’ve spent my whole life trying to overcome it. In certain areas of my life, it serves me incredibly well: My career as an editor, for one thing, and a more recent secondary job as a podcaster (in which I am the host, producer, and editor), are served extremely well by my eye to detail and determination to send as near a perfect product as possible out into the world. I’m successful because of my perfectionism. In the rest of life, however…well, when I was younger, my spotless house was a visual testament to my love of order. Now that I’m cohabitating with a spouse, two children, two cats, and a dog…let’s just say I’ve had to get realistic about what I can and can’t control, and where my perfection is best served.

Once, my perfectionism was a sledgehammer. Now, it’s more of a precision instrument.

One place it is not allowed is anywhere near my first drafts. I learned many years ago during my first NaNoWriMo that if I don’t treat my first-draft attempts as “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” events, I will never get past the first page. My inner editor kicks in. I find one little thing to change and my whole story unravels. I become fixated on producing a final draft before I’ve even gotten the initial words out. My creativity gets pushed aside, shoved down for the sake of an impossible goal.

So, when it comes to writing, I quiet my inner perfectionist. I ignore the voice in my head telling me the attempt I’m making is terrible—let’s be honest, first drafts are meant to be terrible. That way you have something to improve upon! I sit down at my computer, open my document, and just…write. And write. And write. And eventually, I have a draft that my perfectionist can sink her teeth into.

How do you get your writing into the world? Do you allow yourself to go back once you start writing, or is your first draft a one-way trip?