Exploration

Perfectionism vs. Perfection

Recently, a good friend took a new job at a magazine. She was very excited since this was her first venture into the publishing world, and she would have the opportunity to apply her skills in both editing and writing. Although I was very happy for my friend, I also had great concerns because she tends to be a perfectionist. I feared that a publishing environment would exacerbate this tendency and stifle her wonderful writing voice. I constantly remind her to not judge her writing, and to tell her internal critic to go bungee jumping without a bungee. However, I also realize that I need to prepare my friend for the fact that perfection is expected for any publishing house’s finished products. For anyone—especially a writer—working in the publishing world, it is essential to understand the difference between perfectionism and perfection.

Perfectionism is a nasty habit—a disease whose symptoms include a stifling silence that infects original thoughts with suppression. It paralyzes creativity and prevents the mind from freely exploring the realm of possibility where beautiful breakthroughs emerge. Perfectionism is perhaps the greatest source of writer’s block. It causes good writers to doubt their inborn talents. Instead of allowing the words to flow freely out of their heads and onto the page, they imagine that there is a square-hole standard into which their round peg expression must fit. Pondering such an oppressive image can suck the very life out of creativity.

It simply is not possible for one person to attain perfection. The writer can be spared the pain of perfectionist expectations by viewing his or her draft as the first, not the final, step in an editorial process that will involve help from other people. The writer may need to surrender a little control over the content to such a process, but this is far less hazardous than the self-bludgeoning that can result from trying to frame “perfect” words in a first draft. Michelangelo had to chip away a lot of stone before the Pieta emerged—and he probably had some help in the process.

Perfection is a term that should describe the state of a thing, not of a person. Within the publishing industry, perfection is the required state of the printed page emerging from the press. Why? The common reader expects that typeset words in any medium will be perfect. (Bloopers, however, can be respected as a happy accident if treated with a proper sense of humor.)

When an editor reviews the final blue-line proof for a page, that’s the last stop before it hits the press. After this step, there will be no more opportunities to catch mistakes that have crept along, unnoticed under previous editorial scrutiny. At this stage, possible problems could go far beyond grammatical errors to include mistakes in layout, retouching of color photos, placement of captions, pagination, and icons that were replaced on all pages but one—the list is endless. When the printed copies come back from the printer and everyone nervously leafs through the final product, they are quietly hoping that no small detail slipped by everyone’s eyes.

How does the printed word achieve perfection? The secret (and it’s no secret) is common sense integrated with good business practices. Any publishing company worth its salt knows that no document should go anywhere without first being reviewed by at least two pairs of eyes—three, if possible. Who hasn’t heard the adage that two heads are always better than one? With apologies for using that cliché, this writer wants to know why two heads are used far less often than one. Why put so much weight on one head? Why drop a letter, proposal, or manuscript in the mailbox without first asking someone else for a second opinion? The answer is simple: People rush toward deadlines like quarterbacks attempting touchdowns. Suddenly, the date circled in red on the calendar arrives, but no one thought to allot an extra hour, day, or week for the extra proofing required to eliminate all possible errors. A second pair of eyes will not only catch errors, but also offer points of improvement for the structure and flow of the text in question.

However, even after enduring the scrutiny of many eyes, it is still possible for the printed page to emerge from the press in less than perfect form. Although many companies like to tout the "teamwork" concept, few seem to put it into good practice. When it is truly applied, teamwork puts responsibility not on any single person’s shoulders, but on everyone’s. If a business is serious about teamwork, then it should allow its people to devise a process that improves the quality of their finished work while equally sharing the load. Every person on a team is responsible. Business processes that collectively tap the minds, talents, and strengths of many people have proven time and again to be superior to Atlas single-handedly balancing the whole ball on his own overworked shoulders. No wonder he shrugged!

Ultimately, the difference between perfection and perfectionism is humanity. We can create processes to produce a near-perfect product without requiring perfect people.

Here are a few simple rules that can help to create the perfect editorial process:

• No one – absolutely NO ONE – can edit his or her own work. The eye of another reader adds perspective.
• A draft should undergo at least two rounds of proofreading before going to a client or to press.
• Page layouts also should undergo at least two rounds of proofing.
• Organizations should create and adhere to style guides so everyone will know the rules of the road.
• When one person continually re-reads the same text, the likelihood of him or her catching errors is greatly reduced. A team should be large enough to ensure that the same person never proofs the same text twice.
• If we apply great care to each round of proofing, the result will be the closest thing to perfection that humans can achieve.

Mary Jane Adams is a freelance writer,editor, and information architect. She aspires to be a successful sea kayaker in the Pacific Northwest.
E-mail: maverickmary@yahoo.com