Don’t Write Well — Write Ugly

Photo by Sheldon Liu on Unsplash

Staring at a blank screen,

your perfectionism grows.

Fear turns into anxiety then dread then paralysis of the pen.

Drafts are supposed to be messy; they’re the blueprint after all.

Artists who draw don’t start with clean ink lines, they sketch first in pencil.

They sketch pages and pages of scribbles until they feel just right.

So loose the pressure. Don’t think, just write!

Thinking is for the editors. You aren’t an editor, you’re a writer aren’t you? Editors don’t think of writing when they edit, they edit.

So write, goddammit.

Put terrible words on the page. Vomit out sentences after sentences. Don’t clean it up until you’ve made a huge stinkin’ mess.

Then you can edit.

Look, you’ve written.

Look, you’re writing.

You’re a Writer, among other things.