{"id":1554,"date":"2026-07-04T11:01:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T19:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/?p=1554"},"modified":"2026-07-04T11:01:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T19:01:55","slug":"cartel-heist-perfect-is-the-enemy-of-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/04\/cartel-heist-perfect-is-the-enemy-of-done\/","title":{"rendered":"Cartel Heist: Perfect is the Enemy of Done"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The words Perfect is the Enemy of Done <\/strong>can be attributed to Voltaire. What he actually said is: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cLe mieux est l’ennemi du bien.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Voltaire<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Which can be translated to: \u201cThe best is the enemy of the good.\u201d<\/strong> What does this mean, though? To me, it means there is a point where you accept something is finished and not pick at it until it\u2019s perfect. <\/em>Perfect isn\u2019t the goal for writing; done is. Perfect means you work on the same bit of your project over and over until it sparkles. Done means you\u2019re happy enough with it and can move on to something else. It\u2019s better to have multiple done <\/em>projects instead of none because you\u2019re worried about it being perfect. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why isn\u2019t perfect achievable? <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Perfect is different for everyone. That makes it unachievable, because no two people will agree on what perfect really is. Trying to achieve perfection will drain your creative resources and you\u2019ll end up picking at things that were fine the way they were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is good enough?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Good enough is when you\u2019ve gotten your thoughts down in a way that\u2019s complete and compelling. This requires getting other eyes on your work to make sure you\u2019re not just tinkering with the work until it\u2019s pretty mush. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, I considered changing the introduction to Serenity<\/em><\/strong> because I thought I could make it better. I consulted some writer friends and it turns out I was trying to be perfect in a way that would ruin the good thing I have. It\u2019s fine <\/em>the way I\u2019ve written it. Compelling in a way that makes others want to read more. My characters\u2019 motivations are clear, and I needed my friends to tell me that so I could move on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to tell if you\u2019re tinkering too much<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When you\u2019re editing a part of your story over and over instead of moving onto the next bit, you\u2019re probably tinkering too much. You have to get to the point where it\u2019s good enough and move on. Sometimes you have to leave it alone and work on something else. Is that section of your writing giving you trouble and you just can\u2019t find the right words? Take a break, put the project in a drawer, and work on something else. Stepping away lets you come back fresh and see if you really needed to pick at that portion of your story in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Perfect is fine, but finished is better. You\u2019ll feel better getting the words down and then moving onto something else. Saying, \u201cHey, I completed that!\u201d feels so good. To get there, you have to get out of your way and shut off the perfectionism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t worry about being perfect for July. Just get the words out and tinker with it later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you’d like to join the event this post is for (The Tri-Annual Writing Cartel Heist), check out The Writing Cartel Discord<\/a> server. We’re a bunch of writers set out to do the impossible: actually finish our projects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The words Perfect is the Enemy of Done can be attributed to Voltaire. What he actually said is:  \u201cLe mieux est l’ennemi du bien.\u201d \u2014Voltaire Which can be translated to: \u201cThe best is the enemy of the good.\u201d What does this mean, though? To me, it means there is a point where you accept something […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_regular_price":[],"currency_symbol":[],"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,113,46],"tags":[143,115,96],"class_list":["post-1554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-pep-talks","category-writing","tag-cartel-heist","tag-pep-talks","tag-writing-advice"],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_slider_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/event-banner-150x150.png",150,150,true],"post_slider_layout_landscape_large":["http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/event-banner-1200x640.png",1200,640,true],"post_slider_layout_portrait_large":["http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/event-banner-1200x640.png",1200,640,true],"post_slider_layout_square_large":["http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/event-banner-1200x640.png",1200,640,true],"post_slider_layout_landscape":["http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/event-banner-600x400.png",600,400,true],"post_slider_layout_portrait":["http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/event-banner-600x640.png",600,640,true],"post_slider_layout_square":["http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/event-banner-600x600.png",600,600,true],"full":["http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/event-banner.png",1600,640,false]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/event-banner.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1554"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1555,"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554\/revisions\/1555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}