Tag Archives: perfectionism is a form of resistance

Don’t Let Perfectionism Sneak Up on You

by on June 11, 2014 in Common Forms of Resistance, Overcoming Resistance


I saw my dental hygienist, Nan, last week for a routine cleaning. She noticed that I had more build-up than usual and asked if I was using my electric toothbrush. I’d had a feeling Nan was going to ask me about that. So I’d thought about why, after consistently using my electric toothbrush for years, […]

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Friday Fable for Writers Who Unintentionally Block Their Writing

by on June 6, 2014 in Common Forms of Resistance, Writing Life


What kind of writer are you: A tortoise — slow but steady? A hare — lazy but fast when you get around to it? Or a porcupine — excellent but unheard of? Porcupine was in the famous race between the Tortoise and the Hare, but no one ever hears about it. Porcupine knew he wasn’t […]

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Daring Imperfection

by on September 26, 2013 in Common Forms of Resistance, Writing Life


I had an uneasy feeling when I started reading Brené Brown’s Daring Greatly, but I wasn’t prepared for the paradigm quake that came when Brown quoted Gretchen Rubin from her book The Happiness Project: “I remind myself, ‘Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.’ (Cribbed from Votaire.)” I read that and thought smugly, […]

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How the Desire to Be “Rejection-Proof” Blocked My Novel

by on September 25, 2013 in Writing Life


Between 2006 and 2008, I sent queries for my novel The Essential Path to 27 agents. I got 26 letters declining the opportunity to represent me; one didn’t bother to reply. In the middle of this exercise in rejection, I started work on what is now Around the Writer’s Block, perhaps unconsciously looking for a […]

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