Writing FAST - Jeff Bollow 2012

Knowing when to let go
Quicken and polish
Tweak

As you train yourself to write FAST, you’ll break the habit of over-perfection. But when you’re just starting, you’ll have what I call Completion Anxiety.

Completion Anxiety is the fear of putting your work out there. You delay finishing because you’re afraid to show it to anyone. What if they hate it, and then hate you?

So you keep fiddling, and never complete it.

You over-Tweak.

Instead, focus on technicalities. Spelling, sentences, paragraphs. Don’t Re-Focus or Strengthen. You’ve done that stuff.

Just Tweak, and move on.

When you’re done Tweaking the technical stuff, get feedback. Tell yourself you can always change it after the feedback.

But you must let go of it and get an opinion. The longer you work on something, the less objectivity you’ll have.

Feedback can help you reclaim your objectivity.

Completion Anxiety is a simple fear of the unknown.

But I’ll make it known for you: Not everyone will like your writing. Some will love it. Others will hate it. Most won’t care.

People are focused on themselves. As long as you’ve made the idea clear, they’re already on to the next thing.

So let go. Put your work out there when it’s the very best you can make it — when you read it knowing you’ve steered those eyes, and polished those words.

Let it go when lightning bolts are leaping off the page.