I spent a year repeating this to my English students. I was gratified by the number of kids who wrote on their evaluations that the permission (and encouragement) to write badly freed them more than anything they’d ever learned in English. Powerful. As the sign in my class room says: “Write Crap. First Drafts don’t have to be good. They just have to be written!”
A colleague of mine was telling me yesterday that she wants to write. She is terribly impressed that I have written these books. She would like to write a play.
But…
But she hasn’t.
Why?
Because she gets in the way. She doesn’t know which direction to take a scene in, so she takes it neither direction. She doesn’t know how many characters to use, so she has none. She has so many things, that she has nothing.
I told her that she should give herself permission to write a crappy play. If she can free herself from the idea that what she has written must be good, she can actually write SOMETHING. Once there is something on the page, you can edit it into something better. If there is nothing on the page, well, there’s nothing!
I read that Diana Gabaldon wrote Outlander as a practice novel. She thought…
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Shawn L. Bird 
Best advice you can give. A lot of the time the best work is that which is provided by the inhibited mind.
That should be uninhibited lol
Yes. However, frequently much of what the uninhibited mind writes is drivel. The art is in recognizing the gold amid the rocks, and knowing what rocks are essential foundation, and which are simply extraneous.
You still have to dig up the rocks, though or you’ll never find the gold.
Very true. I love the analogy
Absolutely the best advice newbies can be given! Writers write. If someone is not writing, even badly, they are not a writer at that moment. I apply the advice of my art instructor to my writing: “When you paint, paint. That is your ‘tech’ hat — the technology of painting is painting. When you wish to make changes, first change hats and now you’re wearing the ‘Qual’ (quality control) hat. Always keep the two hats separate.”
The lesson, of course, is to write as a Writer, and then edit as an Editor. You can then put on again the writer’s hat on subsequent drafts.
Precisely. I also show my students pages from Stephen King (cooperatively provided in his On Writing) and from my first book with the editorial marks all over it, and discuss the choices. They tend to just edit for spelling/grammar and not for names, action, dialogue, purpose, etc. It’s not a simple concept for them to get! lol
Right on, Shawn, on all counts! Say, if you ever wish a draft of my work, which I would send “anonymously” as long as you provide plagiarism safeguards, maybe you and they would find is useful. Let me know.
Are you offering me the opportunity to publicly edit your precious ms in front of students? Hmm. Tempting! Let’s see what level I’m working with next fall.
Exactly, Shawn. we could use a piece that I could write for your use, based on what you need… or another short story, for instance. Just a help flow, but it would be interesting for me as well.
Intriguing. Possible. Let’s see what comes up. If I only end up teaching grade 9/10 it would probably not be of significant benefit to them, but if I have 11/12s it is worth considering. I’ll keep it in mind!
Absolutely. The only thing that has ever kept me from writing is myself.
So true. When people say, “I’ve always wanted to write a book,” I always say, “Why haven’t you?” It tends to stop them short! Then come the list of excuses. I’m good at countering them. It boils down to, “If you REALLY want to, then you will. So do.” No one says it has to be a GOOD book, after all. Those who don’t regularly write, or who don’t read, are in fact quite likely to write an absolutely HORRENDOUS book. But they will hopefully learn from the experience, and can carry on and improve their skills.
Love it. A customer came up to me the other week and said, “My advice to you…If you want to be a writer, just effing write.”
lol Wise customer!