“I have a sign that says ‘MAKE A MESS,'” a client told me during a recent coaching session, “very neatly written, I’ll have you know.”
The irony wasn’t lost on either of us. Here was a writer who had carefully crafted a reminder to be careless, who had perfectly lettered a sign telling herself to be imperfect. But that contradiction reveals something profound about the creative process—and why so many writers get stuck trying to write flawlessly instead of simply writing forward.
The Perfectionism Trap
This client had been struggling with momentum. Despite having a solid writing routine and clear story goals, she found herself “spinning in this not great way” because she kept trying to perfect each scene before moving on. She was spending precious writing time going back and revising, rereading extensively, and second-guessing her plot choices.
“I feel like I’m just in there going ‘all right, type some sentences and see what happens’ versus like having a plan,” she explained. But the real problem wasn’t lack of planning—it was fear of imperfection masquerading as careful craftsmanship.
When writers get caught in this trap, they often mistake the feeling of being “careful” with the work for actual progress. But perfectionism during the drafting stage isn’t careful—it’s counterproductive.
Why I Have a “Make a Mess” Sign Too
I shared with my client that I also have a “Make a Mess” sign in my writing space, created during a similar struggle. I had returned to a project after some time away, convinced that everything I’d written previously was good, and terrified that any new addition would contaminate the existing work.
“I was deathly afraid to start adding to it because I was afraid that the new stuff was going to be bad and not as good. And I was going to mess up the whole project,” I told her.
This fear is more common than writers realize. We develop an emotional attachment to our existing work that makes us treat it as fragile and precious rather than as raw material to be shaped and reshaped.
The Permission to Fail Forward
When I finally gave myself permission to make a mess, something surprising happened: “It wasn’t a mess,” I discovered. The writing I had feared would ruin everything actually moved the story forward and gave me material to work with.
This is the paradox of creative work: the fear of making a mess often prevents us from discovering that our “messy” work is actually quite good. More importantly, even genuinely messy writing serves an essential function—it gets you to the end of scenes, reveals character relationships, and generates the raw material that revision can transform into something powerful.
What “Making a Mess” Actually Means
Making a mess doesn’t mean writing carelessly or abandoning craft principles. It means:
Prioritizing Forward Motion Over Local Perfection Instead of perfecting each paragraph before moving to the next, write through entire scenes to discover their shape and purpose. You can always refine the prose later, but you can’t refine what doesn’t exist.
Embracing “Good Enough” Drafting Some writing sessions will produce better material than others. Some dialogue will need complete overhaul. Some scenes will require restructuring. This is normal, not failure.
Following Energy Over Logic If you’re excited to write a particular scene, write it—even if it comes “out of order” or creates continuity issues you’ll need to solve later. Energy is precious in the creative process; don’t waste it on organizational perfectionism.
Accepting Temporary Confusion Sometimes you’ll write yourself into corners or create plot problems that need solving. This is part of discovery, not evidence that you’re doing something wrong.
The Revision Mindset vs. The Drafting Mindset
One of the most important distinctions for writers to understand is the difference between drafting work and revision work. They require completely different mindsets and skill sets.
Drafting Mindset:
- Generate material
- Explore possibilities
- Follow instincts
- Maintain momentum
- Embrace imperfection
Revision Mindset:
- Evaluate critically
- Make structural decisions
- Perfect execution
- Solve problems systematically
- Pursue excellence
The problems arise when writers try to do both simultaneously. When you’re drafting, your job is to get the story onto the page in whatever form it wants to emerge. When you’re revising, your job is to shape that material into its best possible form.
Practical Strategies for Productive Messiness
Based on my coaching experience, here are specific techniques for embracing productive messiness:
The Two-Sentence Rule Limit yourself to reading only two sentences from the previous day’s work before continuing. This gives you just enough context to pick up the thread without falling into the editing trap.
End in the Middle Stop writing in the middle of scenes, not at natural chapter breaks. When you know what happens next, it’s easier to maintain momentum the following day.
Park Problem Solutions When you discover plot issues or continuity errors, make a note but keep writing. Don’t stop to fix everything immediately—you’ll lose the creative flow that generated the problem in the first place.
Use Placeholder Text Write “[DESCRIPTION OF ROOM]” or “[CHARACTER’S EMOTIONAL REACTION]” when you can’t immediately find the right words. Keep the story moving and fill in details later.
The Learning Value of Mess
Messy first drafts aren’t just necessary evils—they’re educational. They teach you things about your story that careful planning never could:
- Which characters naturally want more screen time
- What conflicts generate the most energy
- Where your plot instincts lead when you’re not overthinking
- How your natural voice sounds when you’re not self-censoring
A client recently told me she’d been “trying to write her way into” understanding what a character wanted. This is exactly right—sometimes you can only discover story solutions by writing past the point where you think you should stop.
The Feedback Connection
Making a mess also makes you a better collaborator with editors, beta readers, and writing coaches. When you’re not emotionally attached to every sentence being “perfect,” you can receive feedback more objectively and implement suggestions more freely.
Writers who polish extensively before sharing their work often struggle more with revision suggestions because they’ve invested so much effort in the existing version. Writers who share “messier” drafts tend to be more flexible and responsive to structural feedback.
When Perfectionism Serves You
There is a time and place for perfectionism in writing—during final revision stages, when preparing work for submission, or when polishing pieces you’re especially proud of. But during active drafting, perfectionism becomes a creativity killer.
The key is recognizing which phase of the process you’re in and adjusting your standards accordingly. Your rough draft doesn’t need to impress anyone. It just needs to exist.
Building Your Permission Structure
If you’re struggling with perfectionism, consider creating your own “permission structure” for making messes:
- Post a visible reminder (like that “Make a Mess” sign) in your writing space
- Set daily word count goals that prioritize quantity over quality
- Share early drafts with trusted readers who understand they’re seeing rough work
- Keep a “parking lot” document for notes about things to fix later
- Remind yourself that revision is where good writing happens—drafting is where writing happens
The Compound Effect of Messiness
When you consistently give yourself permission to write imperfectly, something remarkable happens: your “messy” writing gets better. The creative muscles you develop by writing forward, following instincts, and generating material actually improve your overall craft.
Writers who regularly complete messy first drafts develop better story instincts, stronger character voices, and more natural narrative rhythm than writers who labor over every sentence as they go.
Making Friends with Imperfection
The goal isn’t to write badly—it’s to write bravely. To follow your story where it wants to go rather than where you think it should go. To trust that most of what feels “messy” to you will feel perfectly readable to others.
As I told my client when she worried about her draft getting out of hand: “When you get to the point where you’re writing well and writing consistently, you realize that the only thing that matters is did I write that day? Did I not write that day?”
Your “Make a Mess” sign isn’t permission to be careless—it’s permission to be courageous. It’s a reminder that finished and imperfect beats perfect and nonexistent every single time.
So go ahead: make your mess. Your story is waiting on the other side of your perfectionism.
For more about how “make a mess” helped me break through creative paralysis, read this post.
Struggling with perfectionism in your writing? My coaching helps writers develop sustainable practices that prioritize progress over perfection, giving you the tools to write bravely and revise strategically. Contact me to schedule a consultation.
