Toiling away at your latest art project can take longer than it needs to take.

Let me repeat that: you can make art faster.

But how? Well, it’s possible for all sorts of artists and creators to get out creations faster if they simply let go of something: their need for it to be perfect.

Because, uh, just so you know: no art is perfect. Art is made to communicate with someone’s soul, even if it’s only the creators. And, for anything to be connecting with someone, it must fail to do so with others.

No art is totally universal. Not everyone in the world likes bacon or ice cream or milk chocolate. You think a subjective exploration of a communication dreamed up by a human mind is going to have a chance at blanket acceptance and praise?

No, of course not. And it’s ridiculous to hold yourself to that standard.

So don’t. Get it good enough.

I don’t mean be lazy, or slack off, or ship out stuff that’s the bare minimum of what you can do. I mean that at the point you can’t help yourself but tweak this or that, at the stage where you wonder if the character, in one scene and one scene only, “strode” across the room or “walked,” it’s best to make a decision and just move on with your life.

Get something out the door. Give art to the world.

It needs it.

Not releasing art when it’s ready is holding it back from people who would want it.

Look, I get it: I’ve pondered a single word in a transition sentence (is “they walked to the house” enough?!) for minutes at a time while editing. But I need to remember that I am the only one in the world who is going to care, and, so long as I am improving at my art, I’m not going to like my creations a year from now anyway.

So, it’s not so big a deal.

Get your art to a decent place, not second-guess so much, and move towards production and improvement and new projects.

The first book you write, no matter how much you toil at it, is not going to be your best book.

Take the edge off and make cool shit.

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Special thanks to: Melissa Potter

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