Write Down The Bones First

If you try to make your writing perfect from your first sentence, you may end up blocking your creativity. Let your writing flow with abandon knowing you can go back and polish your writing later.

Have you ever struggled with your writing to the point it feels like you are moving through cement? If I worry too much about every word right out of the gate, I begin to question the value of what I am writing. If I give myself space to make some mistakes, it relaxes me and gives me permission to be creative.

I am writing a middle school reader and instead of having a firm outline of what I wanted to happen, I started with a rough shell. Because I left the creative doors open, I am continually surprised by the paths where the book is leading me. I’ll go back later and add more description, strengthen verbs, slash extra vocabulary and clean up the grammar.

The best writing I do is the kind that makes me think, is unexpected, and becomes fun to explore.

Writing is like a lump of clay. You can continue to mold it until you are happy with the final product.

The next time you sit down to write, let the words flow and let perfection go. You might be surprised how good the result might be.