Writing FAST - Jeff Bollow 2012

Excuses, excuses
Why you hate writing
The setup

When you’re afraid your work won’t hold up to comparison, what’s the first thing you do? Write? Of course not. The first thing you do is make excuses.

And don’t tell me you don’t. I know you do. I hear excuses every time I ask my students how their writing is going.

One of the biggest excuses is some form of the “I’m not good enough” category. You don’t write because you’re convinced your writing isn’t ready for prime time.

Maybe you’ve got a favorite author whose words you compare yours to. The guy has probably been writing for thirty years, but if the first few sentences you plop on the page aren’t as good as his, you’re immediately certain there’s no hope for you.

Let me say right now, you are good enough. And you’ll be even better when you stop comparing your work to other writers. We’ll get to more of this idea later on.

Another major excuse is the time thing. You don’t have time. You just moved house. You’re studying for your PhD. You just got married. Or divorced. You had kids. You changed jobs. You moved to another city. You’ve been away on business. You’ve had to look after a sick relative. You’ve had to fulfill your duties as mayor. Whatever.

Believe it or not, that’s just your way of avoiding it. The busiest person in the world still needs to eat, sleep and... do other things. You could steal an extra twenty minutes a day if you wanted to. And I’ll show you how to use those twenty minutes most effectively in the coming chapters.

Then there’s the “nothing to say” excuse. You don’t think you’ve got anything to write about. But your road is unique. You’ve got plenty to write about! Even if someone else has already written about it, your voice is original. Add your spark!

How about the “I’m overwhelmed by it” excuse? You know. “A screenplay is too big a project.” “I don’t think I’m ready for that.” Bah humbug! It may be true, but to use it as an excuse for not writing is weak and spineless. Just write it! If it’s terrible, you’ll learn something, and your next one will be better.

Or the “writing is boring” excuse. You get fidgety. You find it tedious. Your brain goes numb when you attempt it. I won’t say too much about this excuse, because when you’ve finished this book, you’ll never even think this one again.

Excuses all come from the same place. You make excuses when you’re scared. When you’re convinced your writing is terrible. When you think you’ll be wasting your time by doing it.

The remedy isn’t where you think it is. You’re looking in the wrong place. Where you need to look, instead, is inside your brain.