Write Fast, Write Fearless: Embracing the Imperfections of First Drafts

By Christopher di Armani on Wednesday, December 14, 2022

Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. -Anne Lamott

Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.
-Anne Lamott

I’m a huge fan of writing crappy first drafts as fast as I possibly can.

Why?

Because the faster I write, the easier the words flow. The faster I write, the easier it is to enter that magical creative space we call “The Zone.”

I’ve yet to find the way to think myself into that space. But I can, almost at will, push myself into it if I’m willing to write as fast as I can and stay focused on the words coming out in each moment.

The benefit of maintaining this practice over time is that my crappy first drafts keep getting better.

It feels like a contradiction, but the reality is that faster I write – while not caring about the quality of that writing – the better I write.

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But that’s the whole point, right? You can’t edit a blank page, but you can turn a page of drivel into something exciting because the words in front of you are inspiring and magical in their crappiness.

I’m writing these words at 2:55am on a night where sleep escapes me. Since I’m not sleeping anyway, I may as well write something so I have pages to edit when I wake up tomorrow.

Whatever I think of these words as I write them is irrelevant, because when I look them over tomorrow, I’ll see a gem hidden amongst all sand and gravel, and that gem will inspire me.

And isn’t that the point of setting words onto the page? To inspire someone, anyone, even if I only inspire myself?