Want to write more? Of course, you do. Then, write your first draft as fast as you can.
The first draft is about one thing: Getting words on paper. The more words you have on the page the better. It doesn’t matter that the first draft is lousy. The first draft is always lousy. It’s supposed to be.
Your enemy is the blank page – all white space and no words. Your job is to put some words in the middle of all that useless white space. The best way to get that done is to write with abandon. Write as fast as you can. Don’t stop to pick a better word. Don’t bother with your spelling, grammar or syntax. Forget punctuation. None of that matters in a first draft. All that matters is how quickly you get words – a lot of words -- on the page.
In his book Ghostwriter, Philip Roth described the work day of a writer as putting sentences together in the morning and turning them around in the afternoon. I like that approach. Try it and see if it works for you.
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This is the only thing that has ever worked for me. Given time to think, my mind begins to wander aimlessly through the possiblities. Fast and furious keeps me focused on the goal before me. There is always time to go back later and clean up the mess I made getting there.
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