the pain of being an idiotic perfectionist

i am drafting the second of three papers for my expository writing and critical thinking seminar right now. it's a close reading of two texts -- noam chomsky's necessary illusions and kovach and rosenstiel's the elements of journalism. and it's about "the possibilities of an independent press".

and did i forget to tell you it's driving me crazy?

no. not the content. but my perfectionist streak. that desire to want to write the "perfect essay". that makes me stop after every sentence, every phrase to ensure that it is the most perfect one for that situation. and by the time i am done, i have lost my chain of thought.

and my preoccupation with structure. more like an obsession of ensuring structure in my essay. how i am going to handle the nuances of explaining individual texts and include appropriate amounts of cross comparison because this is by nature a close reading of two texts.

is it a response to my b-minus in my first paper?

it's almost half past one in the morning. i need my tea.