The current state of a new project I’m working on. All very 1st draft-y.
Why the crappy first draft is hard (and why you start it anyway)
It’s not new to recognize that the first draft is crappy.
Even when a first draft is good, it’s not yet good enough. But knowing doesn’t solve the problem.
Knowing that the first draft is going to be crappy is the same as knowing the mountain will be steep, the current fast, and the swamp treacherous. None of it makes it easier to traverse.
You still have to manage disappointment and confusion and that voice in your head that suggests now, right now, right now, right now, is the perfect time to give up.
What’s hard about a first draft is not so much that by the time it’s done, it will be crappy.
It’s not just that you’re making something bad.
It’s that from the very first moment, you’re making something worse.
Because when something hasn’t yet been drafted—when it’s just a dream, a thought, an inkling—it’s perfect.
Before you’ve started, you haven’t failed.
Of course, you also haven’t started.
That first step
Someone said, “writing is easy. You just stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood appear on your forehead.” And by “writing,” they mean anything where there’s a first step waiting to be taken by you.
Where in your life is there a first step to be taken by you?
Are you ready to give up the comfort of not-started perfection?
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