So Far So Good

I wrote 1,200 bad words for a first chapter. So far I am a success. I have reached my goal.

“Every journey begins with the first step…” The second step is the hardest. Then the journey continues for a very long time, but only at the rate of one step at a time.

If my first step puts me knee high in mud, what shall I do? Cry, cruse and complain loudly for sure but then what? Many would wisely retreat back to safety but the artist, entrepreneur, leader, writer must carry on and take that second step. From there the third follows and with a battery of courage and patience the journey will finish with the final step.

That’s what writing badly is all about. Writing is the step to be taken, judgment is the mud, the shit, the I’m no good. Even if it is true it is still just judgment. To write a book one must write. So write. Remove judgment and expectation. Remove everything. Just write.

Anne Lamott in her 1994 book, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, wrote about her belief in "shitty first drafts":

“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft.

“I know some great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much...Very few writers know where they're going until they've done it.”

The first draft is suppose to be less than the final product. That’s true in all endeavors. The first film I made was not my best, it took me twenty years to master photography and all my attempts at paintings are still lacking. While working on the light bulb, Thomas Edison invented very badly. But he didn’t see it that way, rather, “I learned 1000 ways to not make a light bulb.” The journey can’t begin at the top of the mountain.

Edison also said, “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.” Writing is the perspiration part. So whether goodly, badly, enthusiastically or indifferently, I will just write.

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