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One corollary of that— and this is probably the most important thing for me— is being willing to write really badly. It won’t hurt you to do that. I think there is this fear of writing badly, something primal about it, like: “This bad stuff is coming out of me…” Forget it! Let it float away and the good stuff follows. For me, the bad beginning is just something to build on. It’s no big deal. You have to give yourself permission to do that because you can’t expect to write regularly and always write well. That’s when people get into the habit of waiting for the good moments, and that is where I think writer’s block comes from. Like: It’s not happening. Well, maybe good writing isn’t happening, but let some bad writing happen. Let it happen! I mean, when I was writing The Keep, my writing was so terrible. It was God-awful. My working title for that first draft was, A Short Bad Novel. I thought: “How can I disappoint?
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Jennifer Egan « Writers « The Days of Yore
I’ve probably heard this advice like a thousand times and even said it myself but part of me is always like, “If it’s not perfect immediately, JUST GIVE UP NOW.” But somewhere there is also the part of me that says, “Wait, you really really need to still do this, even if it sometimes or even often feels painful and torturous.”
