There is a lot that is required from academic publishers. A lot of diligence, innovative ideas and concepts, hard work, consistency and much more is required for getting success in research. But surely our list does not include perfectionism. On the contrary, most of the times, a perfectionist attitude tends to impede the process of academic writing and publishing. A writer needs to identify his area of perfectionism and strive towards growing past it.
How do we define Perfectionism?
Perfectionism as a term relies on two fundamentals and both are utopian in nature in academic writing. The first one is that it is possible to write down a perfect piece and the second one is that any academic writing that is not perfect is not acceptable. All writers strive towards excellence in their work but that is not synonym and should not be confused with finding perfection in your work.
Is perfectionism the way to procrastination?
Well, in academic writing, perfectionism is surely the way towards procrastination. It happens because of two reasons. The first reason is that the writer keeps waiting for that perfect idea and has the reluctance to write till the time he has the sense of perfectionism and secondly there is that inhibit on to share the work with a fear if it being imperfect. For those who keep finding the perfect idea or concept, actually have very little to write.
Perfectionism defers submission of manuscript: writers are often seen sitting on their articles for several months, against all other challenges as they see their article as not a reflection of their work but rather a reflection of their personality. The anxiety builds up to the level that they fear that through the evaluation process, the reviewer would evaluate the writer and not the work. This extreme thinking leads to a strong sense of perfectionism. Writers need to remind themselves that the work is not what the writer is but what he has created.
It is imperative to nip in bud this sense of perfectionism and keep the spirits high with a constant reminder that you as a person is much more and beyond this manuscript.
