Have you ever worried that your work isn’t good enough?
I posed this question to the members of our Nestbuilder author community and our Instagram page. Before the answers came in, I guessed most people would vote “yes.” Authors worry that their writing needs to be perfect. In reality, writing needs to be good and enough. Determining what those words mean for you is difficult, so we are creating this guide.
Kate C Bowler says "There's no clear math for enoughness." She’s right. The things that are good and enough for you will be unique.
What is Good?
“Good” is the quality of the finished writing. That quality will depend on genre conventions, reader expectations, and author expectations. Genre conventions are the easiest to define. In a memoir, the writing should focus on a single universal message. A memoir focusing on a traumatic experience in the author’s childhood, the eighteen weeks they spent backpacking through Europe, a year spent taking care of a sweet but stubborn horse, and the intricate politics of your third child’s Parent-Teacher Association would be too complicated and fractured to be good. A devotional needs to provide the reader with spiritual insights.
“Good” is also a subjective metric. Some readers will not mind if a historical fiction book is full of errors, or if character descriptions are inconsistent. Other readers will drop a book when a character with brown eyes suddenly has “orbs the colour of the ocean.” Readers will have their own levels of comfort for word and sentence length.
Authors have their own expectations for their work too. If finding the perfect synonym for a word gives you joy, I see no reason to stop you from playing with language. At Siretona Creative, we make sure that authors’ books meet or exceed their expectations for editing, cover design, layout, and more.
What is Enough?
“Enough” acknowledges an author’s limited time, energy, attention, and money. None of us can spend all of our time and energy writing or spend heaps of money for the world's best editors.
Enough requires authors to examine their goals and understand what will contribute the greatest value for the reader. There comes a time when putting more hours into a project will only give you a slightly better result. Economists call this “diminishing returns.”
How do writers decide what is good and enough?
Deciding when you have hit the balance between good and enough is tricky. There’s never a perfect answer. To know what is good and enough for you, you should examine your goals and capacity. These questions might help you get on the right track.
What do you want this project to be?
Where would you like this project to end up?
Who is this for, and what expectations do they have?
Do I have a deadline?
Is this project time-bound?
What capacity do I have for this project?
How will I know when this project is finished?
Personally, I would love to craft each blog post into a stellar encapsulation of its subject matter. Unfortunately, I have a deadline. I must write one of these per week, so while each post is compelling and useful, there might be small oversights or opportunities for rephrasing.
What is “good” and “enough” will vary by project. You might want to spend years on a book, but only spend a few minutes on an e-mail to a friend. Having different expectations based on project parameters is normal.
No matter how you define those words, deciding when something is good and enough is freeing. You understand the expectations and limits on your work. "Good enough” is mediocre. Aim for both good and enough.
Writing friends can help you discern what your “good and enough” looks like. Our Nestbuilders program offers a focused writing community with weekly calls to discuss projects, insightful posts from members, and a collaborative community that can help in every step of the writing and publishing process. Its members range from newcomers who haven’t written anything longer than a text message to award-winning published authors. We’d love for you to join us at the link here.
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