This is the ONE reason you keep coming up with trash excuses not to write

I know what you’re like.

You’re a bit like me.

You have lots of good ideas. You wish you had multiple versions of you so you could create more cool, fun stuff.

But you’re often in conflict.

You want to write and publish, but then you come up with clever excuses you aren’t even sure are true:

‘You know, Alex, I just haven’t been able to find time in my busy schedule to write.’

‘I’ve been super slammed lately! Tee hee!’

‘Oh, wouldn’t it be nice to have the luxury to write, haha. Not everyone can, Alex.’

But you know these aren’t the reasons.

Your favourite writers wrote when children were running through their kitchens.

They wrote when wars raged.

They wrote from their sickbeds.

They wrote drunk out of their minds.

They wrote depressed.

. . .

You know you’re lying to yourself.

You also watched hours of crap on TV yesterday, didn’t you?

You also sat on a train for 40 minutes.

So you had time.

Here’s what’s actually stopping you, as it has — many, many times — stopped me:

You don’t like how it feels to write a bad first draft.

Read that again.

Writing clunky and unfinished first drafts feels like putting on an unwashed T-shirt before an important Interview.

It feels icky.

It makes you want to start scratching.

But the best, most prolific writers and authors — the ones you admire and love, are continually putting on stinky T-shirts.

(Mostly in the figurative sense).

To be the writer you know you can be, you must…

Must.

Must.

Must…

Get comfortable with the idea that the first few strings of sentences you extract from your brain…

Will be shit.

For example, it used to take me years to write a book.

I hated bad first draft chapters. I wanted to throw my laptop out the window, and I’d stew instead of writing.

Until one day I made peace with the idea that the first one, two, three runs at a chapter won’t be perfect, or feel finished.

Things will be improved, refined, finessed and added to in the editing phase.

Your book or article will NOT be published until YOU press that button.

You always have a chance to make it better before you hit send.

But you will never get anywhere if you aren’t first willing to put down words — ANY damn words to paper.

Your first words are like unsculpted clay.

Drop them out, then sculpt.

Write a bad first draft today.

Your readers need this from you.

I know how frustrating it can be when your writing doesn’t get many likes. Engagement is important. It keeps you excited.

My Online Writing Alchemy course solves this. It shows you how to write stuff people love to read.

Learn more about the course here.

Alex

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