Messy Writing

It’s taken me a while to really come to terms with the fact that writing is messy and that this is OK. Many writers and people who I’ve gotten advice from have talked about how writing is messy. Whether it is for a blog, for a school assignment, or for your novel, first drafts are totally crazy and are just a mish mash of ideas thrown onto a page in no particular order.

I’m quite a perfectionist when it comes to everything I do and so naturally this idea of a messy first draft didn’t compute with my brain the first few times I heard it despite how much I wanted it to. It’s taken me what I admit to as years of time for me to realize that messy really is okay, because at least you have a starting point. Maybe my characters are flawed and there are plot holes or maybe I wrote a book review or an essay that didn’t make any sense to anyone but me. BUT judging myself and pushing myself to do great things on the first try is totally ridiculous and I’m really glad that I’ve started to move beyond this way of dealing with my writing. I truly believe that I was able to start writing my first novel (currently at 14,000 words as I’m writing this) because I let go of the need for everything to be perfect on the first go.

So in light of this and since I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately I wanted to pop on here and write this post for any writer who is feeling down or pressuring themselves. My message to you is:

YOU ARE AMAZING! Don’t beat yourself up about anything today when it comes to writing; Not your word count, or how messy it is, or how much time you spent writing. It is supposed to be a total mess the first time you start writing, but you don’t have to worry about that right now. Just worry about getting words onto the page and remembering why you love to write! Remember why what you’re writing is important to you and then go get ’em!!

😀

Well that was fun!

I hope this post was a fun insight into my mind as a writer and that it reminded you to go easy on yourself (if you needed reminding). Do any of you have certain struggles to face when writing? Tell me about it in the comments!

Happy writing!

Mayah XO

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