Hey Writer,
I wrote this week! Big accomplishment from a guy whose whole shtick is getting people to write, right? One night I chose to work on my short story instead of doom scrolling on socials and it made all the difference. I also have a friend who is putting together a western omnibus that I want to submit a story to. I finally have a deadline, June 6th.
I put out a good 500 words in a half hour and that felt really good. Are they good words? Well that’s subjective, but I can confidently say no. But you can’t edit a blank page so I keep pushing anyways.
Anne Lamott-Shitty First Drafts
Anne Lamott is a novelist, nonfiction author, and champion of writers everywhere. She has been giving writers permission to write badly for over 30 years and made a career of doing so.
Lamott feels that her energy is highest in the mornings so this is when she gets most of her writing done. Her goal is more about just getting words on the page rather than aiming for brilliance. She gives herself permission to write poorly so the work can exist at all and be fixed later. Lamott uses her afternoons for errands, reading, and attending therapy which is something that she has been very open about. Once she has spent enough time away from her work, Lamott comes back to it for a light revision later in the evening.
Anne Lamott believes that rest and self compassion are essential parts of the creative life. You don’t need unbreakable confidence to write, you need to allow yourself to be bad before you can create anything good. She believes in lowering the bar just enough to allow yourself to begin and then trust in the revision process later. In her book Bird by Bird, she argues that all great writers write shitty first drafts. The difference between those who write and those who don't isn't talent, it's the willingness to begin anyways.
Writing Prompt
Write a scene or paragraph that you’ve been avoiding and give yourself permission to write it badly. No rereading or fixing sentences.
Writer’s Block Autopsy: Perfectionism
This week we study the death of the first draft. The killer is none other than perfectionism. There have been too many times where unfinished drafts have been left to gather dust because they weren’t good enough. Perfectionism is something people cling to because they feel it shows they care deeply about their craft. In reality, it’s just fear of failure in nicer wrapping.
You need to give yourself permission to be less than what you believe a great author to be. It’s actually deeper than that, you need to be okay with writing the worst possible version of this current scene. You can fix it later. What you can’t fix is the blank page.
I mentioned it before, I’m glad I wrote this week but I’m not particularly thrilled with what I wrote. There were a few times where I read a sentence and thought it was so bad that it would physically hurt whoever read it. Instead of slamming my laptop closed and giving up, I left it alone to come back to later. The story will exist, no matter how excruciating the path to the end is.
How many words, good or bad, have you written this week?
The world has an endless supply of stories, the only one missing is yours.
See you next week.
-Mike