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HOW TO WRITE BAD

Are you overly precious about what you write? I am. I edit and re-edit articles, stories and blog posts for up to five hours, until they’re abso-bloody-lutely perfect. And even after publishing them, I re-read them time and time again, checking for and amending typos and grammatical errors.

My worry is that I might be completely shit if I don’t succumb to over-editing when really, the best writing I do is off-the-cuff, unplanned and comes like THAT with no warning. BAM. 

Writers are often advised to keep the door closed until that first draft is written: just get it down, shelve it for a while, detach yourself from it, come back to it, second-draft it and then show it to a select few for feedback. But I can’t do this. I need to know I’m on the right track before I even begin; my ego won’t allow a false start, even if that false start is subjective.

The pressure I place on myself to achieve perfection puts me off the task of writing itself: I’m too frightened, to just get on with it and write. Or type. I stew on it: what if it’s crap? I procrastinate: I’ll do it later, after Neighbours.

I want to write the coolest thing anyone could ever write about. I want to grab my reader’s attention. I know, why not start a story with the word “and”? Who does that? No one. But I could be the first. How cool would that be? Right? No. Because I can’t find “it”. Nothing is cool enough. Once again, I have put myself off.

So, I’d like to try something different to release my creative control freak and to stop being so precious about what I produce; to just get it out there. And to stop plotting and planning what I’m going to write about before I write; to let the concept or story and the ideas or characters in it develop at their own pace, show themselves to me and to listen to what they have to say.

I’m going to write bad. Yep. BAD. It’s going to be shit. And I’m probably going to do this three times a week.

I don’t know what I’m going to write about. I don’t know if it’s going to be good. It might not even make sense and it will definitely have spelling mistakes in it because I’m not going to edit it; it’s coming out in one fell swoop. You are welcome to join me if you’re in the same boat.

LET’S BE SHIT TOGETHER.