>Trying to write a novel
>Keep feeling the need to compare myself to greats like Conrad, Orwell, or Melville
>Feel like I can't continue with my first draft until I've edited everything I've done so far to perfection
>Every time someone gives me edits I feel the need to retaliate and disregard their advice
>mfw
How do you deal with perfectionism when writing, Veeky Forums?
>Orwell
>One of the "greats"
You shouldn't be writing.
Well, I don't know. I just put random names. He is pretty good though, at least as an essayist.
You are your own worst critic, but if you keep comparing instead of mimicking, like an artist does, you just aren't going to make it.
Admit you're a hobbyist or get over it.
You shouldn't be posting
Just write a draft that's basically a free write and don't edit at all until you're done. It doesn't even have to have a fully developed plot. Once you get the ideas down, it will be much easier and, hopefully, more pleasant for you.
>>Feel like I can't continue with my first draft until I've edited everything I've done so far to perfection
how many words so far?
I wrote my first novel in August last year. I made a second draft, and was going through with a third when I figured it was as good as it was going to get. Self-published, soon discovered that there were inherent mistakes in my grammar that I didn't know were mistakes.
>All-CAPS words, if used at all, should be almost entirely restricted to dialogue
>The directions of the compass (north/south/east/west) are not always capitalized. Only capitalized when put with a specific location like North Boston, South Dakota, East Coast, Southwest England, etc.
>It's 'living room', not capitalized with 'Living room'... don't know how I was so fucking stupid and managed to screw that up
So yeah, because I hate editing and had already basically read that book 2.5 times before if you include when I wrote it, it took me like 2 agonizing months to read through it AGAIN to fix ALL those mistakes. In short, OP, don't go for perfection. You could probably work on your book for 10 fucking years and end up with 20 fucking drafts with each one being a LITTLE bit better than the last, but ultimately, you'll never reach perfection. Write the book, make sure the grammar is as good as you can make it, then do what you want with it. I self-published. Made almost nothing for around 4.5 months, kept writing, eventually learned how to do the promotional stuff that KDP offers, and now just in March I've made almost $50. One of my books, a drama, 'Another One Please, to Dull the Pain' was written within 100 straight hours (less than 5 whole days) and self-published the 1st draft. Haven't heard any issues with it thus far and at least one person has read it, and surprisingly enough he loved it even though drama isn't what he's into.
tl;dr
Perfection is impossible. Just make sure it's grammatically presentable.
Can you write a bit about what you mean with "promotional stuff"?
And the $50 you mention, is that total for all your writing or for that one book and its earning in March only?
Also do you have a full time job, or university?
You wrote Living amongst the Dead, right? You made another post a couple of days ago I think. I remember bookmarking the amazon page and you got another 2 reviews since I first went on the page.
does an artist mimick?
Oh yeah. They borrow and blend all the time. If not outright than subconsciously. The more ingredients the better the disguise, the more original it seems.