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Writing Garbage

There it is, staring you in the face.

The blank page. “What’s on your mind?”, your favorite #socialmedia site asks.

Nothing? Cat memes? Take a deep breath and start anyway.

You successfully push through the struggle that is writer’s block. It’s finished. Like Frodo at the volcano, it’s all over! Triumphant, you read that first draft and it’s…..not good. Some might even say, terrible.

How are you feeling? Displeased? Ignore the scream rising in your throat chakra, and let me restore your chi with this sound piece of advice:

“Write garbage, as long as you edit brilliantly.” – C.J Cherryh (author of over 80 fiction novels, and knows a thing or two about #writing ).

I promise you this, your first draft will *always* be crap. Doesn’t matter if you’re a plant daddy or Ernest Hemingway. They’re called “rough drafts” for a reason (and it wasn’t because your teacher thought you were a terrible writer). I’d sooner throw my first draft out the window than publish it.

The purpose of your first draft is to get ideas from your brain to…the screen. It’s not about neatly placing each word and churning out perfect #content the first time. If that was the case, I’d never write a single word.

The secret is in the editing. This holds true if you’re a content writer, copywriter, or a student trying to finally finish that research paper. Proofread like it’s nobody’s business. Be merciless with bad copy and typos. Cut out sentence-sucking globs of words (more on that later).

Take the time to carefully read through each sentence. Although garbage is perfectly acceptable for first drafts, if you don’t edit you *will* struggle as a writer.

So, go ahead. Write filthy garbage. As long as you edit ruthlessly.