No More Discouraging Writing Advice
Writers love to say “the first draft of anything is shit”1 or “you have to write a lot of crap to get to the good stuff.” They’re trying to help people get through the slog of writing multiple drafts, to help them keep going through those times when you wonder if you’ll ever be any good at this writing stuff. But that type of advice isn’t nearly as encouraging as people think.
That makes writing first drafts sound like shoveling manure. It makes learning to write sound like Andy Dufresne’s escape at the end of Shawshank Redemption. To be a great writer, all you have to do is dig through a concrete wall with a spoon, then crawl to freedom through five hundred yards of sewer pipe! Doesn’t that sound great? Don’t you feel motivated?
Of course not.
Yes, your early work isn’t going to have the polished quality of your later pieces, but that doesn’t make it crap. That makes it educational. The point of your early work isn’t to impress others, it’s to teach yourself. The quality of first drafts should be measured in the lessons you learned writing them. No story is “bad” if it taught you something.
Remember: a construction site isn’t a crappy building. It just isn’t finished yet.
You will never achieve anything great unless you find value in the process of getting there. If you tell yourself that going to the gym is just torture to be endured on your way to getting fit, you’ll be miserable the entire time. If you tell yourself that going to work is just something you have to do to stay alive, you’ll hate getting out of bed every morning. If you think you’re just writing “crap” first drafts so you can write the “good stuff” later, you will never establish good writing habits. Remember the finish line, but also, don’t forget to look around and enjoy the scenery on the way. Find joy in where you are right now.
Finding Joy in the Writing Process
Learning to find joy in the writing process will keep you motivated, productive, and learning. So how do you do that?
Use your writing skills to help others. Volunteer to proofread or edit someone else’s shaky first drafts. Write someone a gift – a poem, a story about your favorite time together with them, or even just an email asking how they’re doing.
Make writing a game. Turn your writing practice into an RPG! Keep track of words written per week, pages edited, and any other metric you can think of. Every time you hit a new milestone, “level up”. Wrote twenty pages this month? Congrats, you are now a Level Two Scribe with a Magic Pencil of +2 Spellchecking!
Join a writing group. Writing groups are a great way to get feedback on your work in progress and to help others who are struggling with a difficult piece. If you have to have something new to share at every meeting, a writing group gives your process value by turning it into the fun of socializing. Knowing you’ll get to share your first drafts with friends makes writing them fun, not a struggle.
Celebrate your accomplishments, even if they’re small. Did you hit your word count goal for the day? Great! Give yourself a pat on the back. Did you stay focused for an hour without checking your email? Awesome! Take a beat to enjoy the feeling.
Never treat writing as a slog to get through on your way to some goal. Writing should be a celebration of what your mind can do – your creativity, your fantastic story ideas, your brilliant insights into human nature. You are not shoveling manure to find the gold at the bottom. You are learning to create. You are learning to breathe life into imaginary people and give shape to fantastical worlds. You are not a sewer worker. You are a magician.
1This quote is commonly attributed to Ernest Hemingway, but appears to come from the recollections of writer Arnold Samuelson, written down fifty years after the fact. So, it may be apocryphal.
