Sometimes, I can get a little OCD about my writing.
I don't use that terminology lightly--and I also don't mean that everything has to be "just right."
What I mean is that if I spend too long editing something, I start to develop this nagging and irrational sense that the thing is broken, that I have to keep working on it and working on it and working on it, even though I can no longer tell if it's getting any better. I get into a cycle where I think "if I just fix this one thing" and then when I fix that, I get a temporary sense of relief only for it to go away after a minute and I become obsessed with the idea that there is *still* something broken about the thing. It's happened to be a few times before (especially during the rewrite of my second book). I think it stems from the fuel of uncertainty in OCD; it is impossible to truly know if our own work is "good." And so I get stuck in a rut of obsessive editing.
That's what happened with chapter eight.
At least in part. I edited and edited and edited, certain that something was wrong. Eventually, I did find a few things that really needed fixing, but ultimately I think I wasted too much time working on things that I was obsessed with but which weren't that bad.
Anyway, I'm glad it's over. I feel good about the chapter, and I'm going to force myself to keep feeling that until I've edited the rest of the book. Usually, the OCD will wear off if I go and work on other parts, then when I come back to this chapter after a month I'll see it for what it is.