“The first draft of anything is shit.” ― Ernest Hemingway
Story ideas are like Christmas come early. You just can’t wait to unwrap them to reveal the goodies they hold. They also have the distinction of being a brand-spanking-new toy to play with. Your interest and enthusiasm levels are high and you’re chomping at the bit to transcribe your brilliant newborn onto paper. Life doesn’t get much better than this.
Then, somewhere along the way—-usually in the middle of Act 2—-the bloom is off the rose and finishing the piece becomes an arduous, nigh impossible task because either your interest has changed or your inspiration got a flat tire and you don’t have a spare in the trunk. The first telltale sign of trouble is that very last sentence you wrote that just doesn’t seem to work, no matter how you tweak it.
My advice? Let it be bad.
Your goal at this stage should be to get through your first draft as quickly as possible. It’s like that saying, you can’t see the forest for the trees. Well, that sentence or paragraph that you’re stuck writing and re-writing is the tree and you still have plenty more trees to clear before worrying about how pretty and perfect your forest is.
So, write through to the end, then you can take a step back, see the real shape of your story, and go about the process of polishing it to perfection—-or as close to that as you’re able to manage. But in order to get to that place, you first have to give yourself permission to write badly.
You can start by promising yourself you won’t tell anyone just how eye-burningly awful the first draft was and we’ll all be none the wiser. You can keep a secret, can’t you?
Sally forth and be courageously bad writeful.
— Rhyan Scorpio-Rhys
Haha. That us why I hide all my handwritten first drafts. 🙂 great advice!
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You ain’t alone in that, trust me. Cheers!
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I think I have the market in bad writing ability cornered. Yea me!
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Everyone can’t be Proust and imagine how boring reading would be if we were. The key is sticktoitiveness. Write what you want to write and always finish what you start. Easier said than done, but that’s the goal you strive for. As far as quality goes, just keep in mind that nothing good is ever written, it’s rewritten.
Let your writing be bad, then be like Jude and remember to let it into your heart, then you can start to “make it better.”
Sorry. The song popped into my head and I couldn’t resist.
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Reblogged this on Icanbeatit.
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This is absolutely true – this must be the first rule of writing!
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Great advice. All the good writers are doing it 🙂
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Copying the habits of good writers can’t be a bad thing. Cheers!
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Reblogged this on Kim Raya's Blog.
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