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Hi kids, today I'm going to talk about one of the best cures for writer's block I've ever used, that my perfectionist side loves to hate.
If you're not moving on because what you've written is crap, or all you can come up with is crap, write it anyway.
Why?
YOU CAN FIX IT LATER.
The important thing, for me at least, is to get all of it out of your head and onto the page; plow ahead, keep writing. You'll write some bits you like, and a lot of bits that you won't, but you're going to go over all of them with your red editing pen later anyway, so don't worry about all of it being good on a first draft.
This is especially useful if you struggle with beginnings/opening sentences. Either write whatever terrible crap you've come up with, or leave it blank and write it later! You don't need to write it all in sequence, either. My practice for writing solo stories is to outline the plot, start-to-finish, in bullet points, and then try to write out the chapters. Sometimes I'm just getting NOTHING for chapter two, but I know what's going down in chapter five! So why shouldn't I work on that one?
In short: There's no law that says your story has to be written in order, and there's definitely none that says you have to get everything right the first time. If you're a perfectionist like me, then a little part of you dies every time you hear me say this, but leave the crap; you can fix it later.
If you're not moving on because what you've written is crap, or all you can come up with is crap, write it anyway.
Why?
YOU CAN FIX IT LATER.
The important thing, for me at least, is to get all of it out of your head and onto the page; plow ahead, keep writing. You'll write some bits you like, and a lot of bits that you won't, but you're going to go over all of them with your red editing pen later anyway, so don't worry about all of it being good on a first draft.
This is especially useful if you struggle with beginnings/opening sentences. Either write whatever terrible crap you've come up with, or leave it blank and write it later! You don't need to write it all in sequence, either. My practice for writing solo stories is to outline the plot, start-to-finish, in bullet points, and then try to write out the chapters. Sometimes I'm just getting NOTHING for chapter two, but I know what's going down in chapter five! So why shouldn't I work on that one?
In short: There's no law that says your story has to be written in order, and there's definitely none that says you have to get everything right the first time. If you're a perfectionist like me, then a little part of you dies every time you hear me say this, but leave the crap; you can fix it later.
