Hi Reader,

Here we are, almost at the end of the year! It's hard to believe—2023 went by in a flash!

We're closing out the year with another Meet the Author interview, and I'm thrilled to introduce you to L'Oreal Thompson Payton, author of Stop Waiting for Perfect (affiliate link).

L’Oreal Thompson Payton is an award-winning journalist and the author of Stop Waiting for Perfect. Her words have also appeared in outlets such as Bitch, Bustle, Essence, SELF, Shondaland and Well + Good, among others. Originally from Maryland, L’Oreal lives just outside of Chicago with her very patient husband and daughter whose laugh lights up her world. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @LTintheCity and subscribe to her weekly motivational newsletter at LTintheCity.com.

You’re an award-winning journalist and the author of Stop Waiting for Perfect, and you run a small business, which also involves a lot of writing! Tell us about your journey.

My writing journey started when I was very young. There's a picture in the book where I am on the sofa with my sister, and I'm writing—I'm three, maybe three and a half. And I have a notebook very similar to the one I write in today, a spiral-bound, loose-leaf notebook.

I love reading, and I think that's what really inspired my love of writing. As I got older, especially as I became obsessed with teen magazines, I didn't see myself represented. There was a lot of Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera—this is the late ‘90s, early 2000s. I love Brandy and Monica, but Brandy and Monica weren't on the cover of those teen magazines.

When I got to high school, I was editor-in-chief of my student newspaper—my dream job was to be editor-in-chief of a teen magazine. I knew, “Okay, I have to get the internships; I have to get the experience, so why not start in high school?” I loved it, and writing the monthly columns was the first time I saw that my words could also help others.

I wrote about body positivity before that was a thing, and other stories that my peers, my classmates, my friends were like, “Oh, this was really helpful. This helped me feel seen and less alone and represented.”

I was like, “This is it. This is what I want to do with my career.”

I didn't get a job right after [college] graduation because I graduated into a recession. Thank you, 2008. I got my start at my hometown newspaper covering everything from the farmer who grew the largest watermelon to a mom whose son was killed overseas. I won an award for that story.

I did about a five-year stint in nonprofit PR because I was burnt out by covering the Black Lives Matter movement at Jet and Ebony. Then, most recently, I left my role at Fortune to go back to full-time freelance writing. Freelancing is something I've always returned to.

At the end of the day, it all comes back to writing, using my words for storytelling, whether that's in my newsletter, interviews, or my book, to help people—especially women, and especially Black women and girls—feel less alone in this interesting world that we live in.

Once you decided to write your book, how did you approach the writing process? How did your writing habits and practices have to change for a project of that size?

The book and my baby happened at the same time, even though I started working on the book first. I had the idea in 2015 and started writing the proposal in earnest in 2017. I bought Jen Sincero’s nonfiction book proposal course as a birthday gift for myself. I wrote the proposal. Then, I procrastinated. I didn’t finish it until the spring of 2018. It was ironic because the book was originally about overcoming impostor syndrome, and I was feeling a lot of impostor syndrome!

Shortly before signing the book deal in 2020, I found out I was pregnant. We had gone through multiple rounds of IVF. So it was like, here's something we've been working toward for years that wasn't working out the way we thought it would. And here’s this book project that I had been working toward for years and hadn’t quite shaken out the way I thought it would. And both of them were happening at the same time.

I had this idea that I’d be writing in a coffee shop, I'd have my latte and hip-hop playing in the background, and the reality was, “No, I'm nursing a newborn.” A lot of the book was written in my notes app at two, four o'clock in the morning with her in one arm and my phone in the other.

It wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination. What allowed me to get it done was this tweet, which I wrote about in the book as well: “You can edit bad, but you can't edit nothing.”

I'm a journalist, and brevity is the name of the game for journalism. But that does not a book make. I feel like, low-key, the book was harder than the baby because there were people who could help with the baby, but the book was entirely on me.

What was helpful in dealing with perfectionism? How did you say, “Yes, I have this ideal. But here’s what’s in front of me, and I’m going to get the writing done?”

Honestly? The contract. I'm deadline-driven anyway. But it was like, “Okay, your ass is on the line. Your name is on the line here; you actually need to get this done.” My editor was very patient. I love her to pieces. Initially, when we got the deal, the deadline was right after my due date for the baby. I thought, “Oh, I'll be able to write while she's napping, and it'll be so easy.” I was wrong. I was so wrong!

Seeing that tweet, “You can edit bad, but you can't edit nothing” also helped. I've done editing jobs, and I realized I was trying to do both jobs at once. I was trying to be the writer and the editor. I had to remember that I was not getting paid to be the editor. I had to put words on the paper and let my editor do her job and make them sound better.

At first I felt like it had to be perfect because I needed to represent all Black women writers and make sure that we get a fair chance in this industry that was not made with us in mind. Shonda Rhimes writes about it in Year of Yes. That pressure is very real, and it can be very suffocating.

I found myself doing that and then was like, hold up, wait a minute, no one's asking that of me. I don't need to put that cape on and carry that burden. Once I relinquished that control, that idea of “I have to submit a perfect first draft,” I got over my biggest block.

Raising the baby and releasing the book at the same time has challenged my notion of perfection and helped me let go of it. I realized it has no place in parenting. In any kind of creative endeavor, either. You cannot allow perfection to be the enemy of good.

What writing strategies did you find helpful for getting words on the page, and what were some things you tried that didn’t work?

Community was important, especially since I work from home. I don’t have an office or a co-working space. So I found Permission to Write, which was instrumental. Every Friday, I’d log onto a Zoom with other writers of color and have my dedicated book writing time. I got accountability and community and amazing co-working sessions. Community and accountability are what helped me get through it.

I really tried to make Scrivener happen, but it wasn't as intuitive as I thought it would be. I watched a lot of tutorials, I had other author friends try to help me, and it just wasn't clicking. Every time I logged on, I felt like I had to sit down and write five pages, and it had to be perfect. And eventually, I was just like, “Let's scrap this. Let me go back to Google Docs.” My brain associates Google Docs with writing. It is where I write my newsletters. It's where I write the drafts for my stories. That is where the magic happens.

What was the publishing process like?

I started querying agents in 2018 and was met with a lot of rejection—rejection after rejection after rejection. One of these agents was like, “I love your voice. I love the idea. I think this book is needed. Come back when you have 20,000 followers.” That was disheartening because, at the time, across all platforms, I had about 6,000. It reminded me that publishing is a business just like any other. They're in the business of selling books. I spent a lot of time building my brand, starting my newsletter, being more active on social media, and getting more bylines for the topic. I was trying to be strategic.

I would tell my younger self that you don't have to settle. You don't have to accept the first offer that comes along. Trust your gut. I was so desperate to get the agent, because in order to get the book deal, I had to have the agent, and so I was impatient. It wasn't until the end of 2020, going into 2021, that I signed with my current agent.

I was superstitious about the book deal. I didn't want to start writing! We know that publishing is so slow—you get the deal, but it's months before that coveted Publishers Weekly screenshot we all long for, right? The perfectionist in me was like, “Well, I have to wait for that!” I needed to be official before I started writing, and I really, really did myself a disservice there.

What has it been like to promote and market your book?

I had a really incredible launch. We were in New York, and my publicist had booked me on CBS Morning, so there I was on national TV, sitting across from Gayle King. It was surreal. I've never done TV before, so to have a national debut was really fun and also exhausting.

We did a small but mighty book tour. We had an event in New York, my hometown of Baltimore, and then here in Chicago. It was mostly at independent bookstores and libraries, and some of the speaking engagements I've gotten to do were at my high school and college. There have been a lot of these full-circle moments, like having my dad in the crowd when the book is dedicated to him, and I’m sharing the story about how he inspired me to start writing.

Something special to me is these different events where Black moms are buying the book for their daughter and their mom and their auntie and it's having a generational impact. Yes, the book is for everybody who identifies as a perfectionist, and I think perfectionism is compounded for Black women in America because of those two things, being Black and being women. Knowing that it can have this kind of ripple effect has been fun to watch.

There's a lot of hard work. There are years of work you put into a book, and by the time it comes out, you’ve read it a million times. I just wanted to be out in the world. I was ready for people to respond to it and react to it and receive it. It's been really amazing.

I still have a relatively small following, so there hasn't been a lot that I've said no to—I'm all about getting the word out. It's very easy to get caught up in numbers and sales. What I've been trying to focus more on is the impact, looking at the notes that people share, seeing who responds to the book, and remembering that that's also the “why.”

It goes back to my original goal of becoming a journalist and a writer to help other people, especially Black women and girls. Being able to do this on a larger scale with the book reminds me of the why and the impact that my words and storytelling can have.

Since Stop Waiting for Perfect is about perfectionism, what advice would you give to a writer who’s caught in the perfectionism trap?

You don't have to write a perfect first draft. Those things do not go together. So start now! Start messing around; just get words on a page. You can always go back and make them better.

Procrastination is also a form of perfectionism.

Find accountability in community. I can set my own deadline, and it can come and go, but who’s going to call me out on it? Find other writers or friends—people who are going to hold you accountable lovingly, nudge you, and encourage you but who also make sure you do what you say you’re going to.

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I had such a blast talking to L'Oreal about writing, perfectionism, and the publishing process. I hope you enjoyed our conversation as well!

I can't wait to continue our conversations in the new year, Reader. I've got plenty more in store for 2024, so keep an eye on your inbox in January!

Have a wonderful holiday season and a happy New Year!

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