The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon.
-Robert Cormier
No matter what you write today, odds are nobody will die.
Yes, your reader’s life is in your hands, but your job is to save that life with your words, not end it.
The writing life is an extraordinarily forgiving life. It’s also an immensely freeing life, so take chances with your writing.
Risk being emotionally vulnerable on the page today. Share from your heart. Say whatever comes to mind without self-censorship. Click To TweetRisk expressing your deepest pain on the page today. You’ll feel a lot of emotions after, but perhaps none so strongly as gratitude.
Risk sharing your deepest, darkest secret on the page today. Once it’s staring back at you from the page, it holds far less power over your life.
You can burn the pages when you’re done. Nobody will ever see it unless you show it to them.
The brain surgeon wishes for this freedom! Her every microscopic movement could permanently alter the course of her patient’s life.
The worst fate we can suffer is a bad review. We can survive a bad review. Unpleasant, sure. Life-threatening, probably not.
To paraphrase Ecclesiastes 3:7, there is a time to write and a time to research, a time to rewrite and a time to publish.
Embrace them all.
