Forgive me, for I am here to destroy your insecurities. Your excuses. The lie that suggests your first draft must be perfect. The illusion that great copy is born in a single moment of white hot inspiration.
I want to destroy those things so you can get down to the business of writing. And that begins with first drafts.
See, first drafts scare people into a state of inactivity. Even the greats. Kurt Vonnegut said, “When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth.”
So when a writer of his caliber makes a statement like that … do you think you will be any different?
You won’t.
You’ll make your copy adequate in the first rewrite. Good in the second. Great in the third and fourth. More likely in the fifth and sixth. And beyond.
But not today. Today is the day to write like a lunatic … or an invalid with a crayon crushed between his teeth. Just like our heroes.
