Last week, I wrote about my recent writing-related anxieties and the need to push past them.
This week, I'd like to share the solution.
It's writing! Writing is the solution! Writing is always the solution.
Once I sat down and forced myself to revise a document that I should have revised a week prior, the anxiety dissipated. Not immediately—I spent the first thirty minutes feeling like I was sitting in an ice bath. The first few changes I made to the story felt insipid and stilted.
But the feeling left as I continued to push past it and write. And that got me thinking.
Every so often on one of the writing-related subreddits I frequent, I will see a novice asking why they can't seem to start writing.
They've done the research! They've done the planning! They've got intricate worldbuilding! But they haven't written a paragraph of the actual book, much less a chapter. They don't know where to start. They don't know how to push past the self-doubt.
It's simple. You just write.
I can fix a bad page. I can’t fix a blank one. - Nora Roberts
I have said this before and I will say it again: writing something bad is better than not writing at all.
You can revise poor writing. You cannot revise what you have not written down.
I know that new writers tend to take writing advice literally, so I want to clarify...
"Just write" does not mean don't read.
"Just write" does not mean don't plan.
"Just write" means that you need to write, actually write your story, whether or not you feel ready.
So go write!
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