Train your brain 💪💪

In the last post I spoke about how deferring judgement on ideas helps creativity and works brilliantly for ideation.

The other thing we constantly judge ourselves for, which is extremely counter-productive, especially when it comes to achieving bigger, life long goals or learning new skills is our short term performance.

I wrote garbage today. I wrote only 50 words today. My plot is a mess. etc.

We’re constantly judging ourselves.  It’s deeply ingrained in our psyche, because it has many positive uses. It helps us learn from our more serious mistakes and get better at things we do. But… 

This subconscious self assessment has many crippling and negative side effects, the most serious of which for writers is that it kills both motivation and creativity. It sends your brain into an infinite loop of expecting negative outcomes.

The first draft of anything is shit
Ernest Hemingway

Literally anything written that was ever written, invented, created or achieved in any way, started with a shitty version one.

Take a deep breath. Let that sink in.

Literally every one that has run a marathon in record time has seen days they found it hard to finish even 5 miles. 

The secret to success is to keep getting back on your feet and moving forward and to build winning habits. Fight entropy! 

You also need to remember that this does not require you to impress yourself everyday or in every moment. I’ve met writers that rewrite a single scene for months, and then take ten years to write the first draft of their manuscript. And guess what? That first draft at the end of ten years is still — a shitty first draft.

I got into a bit of a tweet battle during NaNoWriMo when a writer claimed that writing is an “art form guided by emotion, not the production of widgets guided by a time clock…so write when you feel the inspiration,” he said. 

Wrong. 

This sentiment not only puts on display said writer’s lack of understanding of the WORK it takes to become a successful writer, but also displays an inflated ego and a sad lack of empathy for widget makers. Before they’ve even seen any success as a writer! Just by virtue of calling themselves a writer. 

A widget maker does not need inspiration to work, but you as a writer do?

I’ve already made a prediction about how far this writer will go in their career.

Waiting for inspiration as a requirement to write is a myth. 

Do athletes run only when inspired? Do musicians practice only when inspired? 

Writer’s block? I’ve heard of this. This is when a writer cannot write, yes? Then that person isn’t a writer anymore. I’m sorry, but the job is getting up in the fucking morning and writing for a living.

― Warren Ellis

Right back to why you shouldn’t judge yourself…

Writing is exactly like the production of widgets guided by a time clock. And, when you’re producing widgets, you don’t run a quality check while they’re in production. You run quality checks after you’ve produced a significant number of widgets. And some of them will suck. Even if you’re the best widget maker in the universe. It’s what it is.

Write garbage, and you will. That’s how you train your brain.

Now while you’re doing that, if you judge yourself every time you write garbage, it’s easy to see how you’ll be setting yourself up for an endless cycle of self-flagellation and soon telling yourself that it’s better to only write when you “feel the inspiration”.

“It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.” 
— Ernest Hemingway 

Hemingway’s got my back today.

He says this, because he knew about where good writing really comes from. It comes from editing. That’s when your true skill as a writer will be judged. But if you’ve not got to that stage yet, hold your judgement horses and let it rip in today’s writing session!

I’ve been quite tempted to disable the backspace key on WRITAA. I’ve been thinking about it a lot. You think I should do it?