Your Writing Will Get Much Better When You Learn This Secret
How many essays have you had to write over the course of your life?How many nights did you spend up pouring over them?Be honest.How often did you bust out the paper the night before ready to turn it, barely checking for grammatical errors?Instead of getting words, any words, on the page, you bemoan and contemplate the right words. You ache endlessly over how to structure them.
I was never good at writing essays. I was the same way, that is until I learned the secret to great writing.The goal when writing is never for it to be perfect. The goal is to get your point across, as concisely as possible.This is the mistake most of us make when writing.To get your writing perfect, you have to write it first.World-class authors know this. They know that they have to get it out onto paper first. They know the power is in the first draft.The first draft is where you get out all your ideas. It’s going to be messy as hell, but it’s the necessary first step.You can’t get anywhere without first writing a rough draft. That’s what we missed in school.If it helps, stop thinking of it as a rough draft and think of it as a first draft. It reminds you that you need to start. It reminds you that you need to have a first before you can have a second.When you think of a rough draft, you still have this feeling that it should be good. Your rough draft should have beautiful prose and need little edits before it’s ready.No, your first drafts are going to be rough. They’re going to look like the Rocky Mountains at first.
It may be easier for you if you make an outline. You may want to dive right in. Forget outlines if you have to. Half the time I don’t write with an outline. I start with an idea and then I go with it.Take the idea you have and start word vomiting. Get out every thought you can think of, everything you want to say.That’s how you get the content. Worry about editing and polishing later. When you’re starting out, the most important part is to have content. There’s no way to have that if you don’t start getting the words out of your head.It has to get out of your brain and onto the page before you can do anything with it.The first draft is always going to suck, but unless you start somewhere you’re never going to have a first draft to deal with.Once you do that, the hard part is over. After you have the first draft, you can organize and refine it.All the power to great writing starts in the first draft. It opens the door to something better. It’s right there in front of you. You just need to get out the first draft.
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