Why your novel, beautiful as it is, will never get published …
• Procrastination is the thief of time

• The best drives out the good

• You are a writer – so write, damn you!

These three sentences rotate on the corkboard above my computer. They are written on three post-it pads, which are pinned to the board, and every day I take the top one, move it to the bottom and pin them back up with the second one now uppermost. Every few weeks the pinholes get so big that the post-its won’t stay pinned up, so I write them out again and pin the fresh ones to the board.

It’s not elegant, but it’s simple and it’s effective. I struggle with perfectionism and procrastination as much as the next writer. I can always hit a deadline for paying work, because I have a Protestant Work Ethic that is bigger than I am, but when it’s my own work … I fail, over and over and over again.

So I have my three messages to myself, and while they don’t always work, they remind me that the only reason they don’t work is me. Me. Me. Me.

I know I’m not perfect in any other way, so why do I think my writing should be perfect? Do I throw dinner in the bin if it looks less good than Nigella’s offerings (no, because I’m a greedy pig, but that’s a different issue for another day) – of course I don’t.

Do I refuse to leave the house if I don’t look as good as …. (okay, this is a tough one, women of my age don’t have so many role models – let’s say my exact contemporary, Demi Moore, shall we?) uh, no, because if I did, I’d be a real hermit, rather than just a recluse.

What exactly is the myth that makes me not write because it’s not perfect enough?

It’s the myth of posterity and it’s bollocks. Sappho didn’t write for the future, she wrote to get hot girls into her bed. Charles Dickens wrote against the clock to keep his family in underwear, porridge and bowling hoops, not to get on the ‘Classic Novels’ shortlist. Tolstoy, all gods bless him, wrote what he thought was incisive up-to-date social commentary, mixed (to be fair) with some philosophising about the world, and would have probably laughed bitterly to find himself as an A-Level set text.

Good enough writing allows for better writing tomorrow. Perfect writing allows for nothing but failure in the future. Posterity is not aware of us, so we should try to remain unaware of it. Borges said ‘A writer should have another lifetime to see if he's appreciated’ – nice thought but I doubt even Dante managed it, so forget the future, and get on with it. What you don’t finish is not beautiful. What you don’t finish is not beautiful, what you don’t finish is not beautiful. Has that message sunk in yet? If not, here’s three more, from my heart to yours:

• Procrastination is the thief of time

• The best drives out the good

• You are a writer – so write, damn you!

The picture has nothing to do with the post, but it's lovely and I took it on Sunday, so there!

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