I watched the third installment of the Knives Out franchise yesterday—and I liked it. It’s a good movie, and even one of the better films of the year. It’s obvious that everyone involved had a lot of fun making it, and that Rian Johnson is a smart writer.

Yes, he messed up Star Wars—but only because Kathleen Kennedy allowed him to. Johnson’s filmography proves time and again that he can write clever, original stories. Wake Up Dead Man is a great example of his ability to deliver smart, well-constructed plotlines.

That said, the one thing that almost made me give up on the movie was the first act. It’s simply too long. More than half an hour passes before we get the first murder victim. After that, the movie really picks up steam and keeps you on the edge of your seat. At times, it’s downright brilliant—just like the first two Knives Out films. But I can imagine some viewers dropping out during the first act because it drags a bit.

The best way to get people interested in your story is to start with a bang. Throw the audience straight into the action—just like Tom Cruise does in every Mission: Impossible movie.

Of course, you need to develop the plot and characters at some point, or you won’t have a story at all. But first, you have to capture the audience’s attention before they’re willing to invest in your character and plot development.

As great as Wake Up Dead Man is, I would have started with the murder and then used flashbacks to convey the plot and character development that’s crammed into the first act.

Still, I liked the movie—a lot—and I highly recommend watching it.

I was hesitant to publish my first book in 2023. In fact, I was so hesitant that I kept it on my computer for years, even though it was already finished. I felt the same hesitation with my second book in 2024—and my third in 2024 as well. I guess, that feeling of “It’s not good enough” never really goes away.

After publishing three books and nearly a dozen short stories, I’ve come to an important conclusion: if you aim for perfection, you will never publish anything. Of course you should try to produce your best work, but if you obsess over perfection, no sentence will ever feel good enough—and you’ll never release anything at all.

What’s better: publishing a book that is “good enough,” or never publishing a book because it isn’t perfect?

Another thing to keep in mind is that even if you did reach perfection, some readers would still disagree. There are people on Amazon who give The Lord of the Rings one-star reviews. There are people who downvote YouTube videos of babies playing with puppies. Some crazy people rate Christopher Nolan movies 1 out of 10.

The lesson here is: Your idea of perfection will never be everyone’s perfection.

Since universal perfection is impossible, why try to reach it? Aim for creating a book that is good—and then release it instead.

With all of this in mind, I’ve established my third iron rule of writing: If something is finished, publish it. If you don’t, you’ll get stuck in editing limbo, endlessly trying to “fix” something that can’t be fixed anyway.

To sum up the iron rules so far:

1. Collect all ideas.
2. Work on one idea until you have a first draft.
3. Publish everything that is finished.