Just right - it doesn't have to be

The first thing my inner teacher taught me about writing was that if I wanted to be a writer I had to write. In the early stages I found this very difficult. Like every blank canvas is a potential masterpiece, every blank sheet of paper, or new blank document on my word processor, has the potential to be brilliant … until that first mark. 

Inner doubts lurk in our minds. Tiny voices whisper:

What if I am not good enough?

What if I have nothing to say? 

The thing is, when it comes to writing, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you write.

After writing comes refinement. After writing that first draft you can think about your choice of vocabulary, your sentence constructions, the narrative voice you use, the characters, the world they inhabit and all those other important things.

But if you don’t write, if you wait until everything is perfect before you make a mark, you will never start. 

So ignore the voices in your head, and write. Resist the temptation to read another book on writing (if you’re like me you have shelves of these). Ignore the housework, or the gardening. It doesn’t matter what you write; it doesn’t matter how good, bad or indifferent it is. Once you’ve got it down you can come back to it and improve it, or throw it out. The important thing is that to be a writer, you have to write.