Do It Badly.
Whenever I am stuck about what to write, with my little shoulder-dwelling demons criticizing everything I type, I hear my mom’s voice in my head saying, “Just do it badly.” Ever since I started having schoolwork that needed to be accomplished, I had such high standards for myself that I could get stuck in my own perfectionism and have trouble putting anything on paper. My mom would counsel me every time to intentionally write a bad draft. If my goal is to do something badly, I can certainly succeed at that!
If you are sometimes similarly stuck the muck of your own perfectionism, I encourage you to write the worst thing possible. You can always throw it away, burn it, make a paper airplane from it, or erase all evidence that you ever tried. But give yourself the gift of the first draft, however bad it is, so that you have something to stand on to cultivate your second, third, five hundredth draft.
I sat down to write a Blogatini entry, aiming for 500 words. As you see by my small word count, I have done it badly! I didn’t even come close to 500 words, but I did put some words down on electronic paper and that is infinitely more than no words. A bad draft is infinitely more than no draft. So go ahead and dive into that project that is waiting for you. Please do your worst!
