Tuesday Tip: First Drafts

This is a lesson I have learned and was a real breakthrough for me.

Tip: Give yourself permission to write a crappy first draft.

For decades I was in a trap of my own making. I tried to make my first draft as perfect as possible as I wrote it. It was a productivity killer. It was a creativity killer. It was a focus killer.

Once I began to understand this lesson, I ran with it.

There are a lot of good sayings associated with this concept:

• The perfect is the enemy of the good.
• First, fill the sandbox, then build the castle.
• Don't be afraid to write crap because crap makes good fertilizer.
• Just shut up and write the fucking thing.

The better my outline, the better my crappy first draft, the easier editing will be, the better the final will be.

Giving myself permission to make mistakes was key. It freed my mind. The stories got better.

--Give yourself permission.