Let me start off by saying that you will always doubt yourself. No matter how quickly the words flow. No matter how many times you edit each individual word or nuance or punctuation mark, it will still feel like it’s not good. It might even feel like it’s not worth it.
It doesn’t have to be good. Most often, it doesn’t even have to make sense. That line from point A to point B can pirouette, sashay, do the locomotion or even moonwalk. As long as you get from point A to point B, you win. So here’s what you need to start/stop doing:
- start carving time out for your creative process
- stop backspacing
- stop making up bullshit rules that keep you away from creating
- stop tying yourself to one story if there are more stories that you feel you need to tell
- start doing what you used to do when you were less critical of your writing:
- putting down a sentence at a time throughout the day as they come to you is still writing
- those scraps of paper you used to collect have value, keep doing that because it keeps you connected to your work, even when you have no intention of investing time in it.
- stop writing for anyone else but yourself, you have no readers until you finish something
- stop starting over, it just feels like an excuse to avoid writing the difficult monumental middle parts
Every step you take from point A to point B is worth it. Every keystroke, every second, every minute, all of the investment has value. In the end, you’re always working towards something that matters to you. In that same end, it will continue to feed your soul the purpose and direction it always have.
Love yourself and you will learn to love the work and time you’re putting in.
