Writing FAST - Jeff Bollow 2012

Nothing personal
Inspect what you have
Strengthen

The first key to objectivity is to not take it personally.

Promise yourself something. When you re-read and analyze your own work, you won’t judge yourself. You won’t cringe. You won’t hurl obscenities at yourself.

Because that’s not fair. Think about it.

You wrote this thing quickly. And I mean FAST!

Of course it has problems. How could it not?!

Picture your best friend standing in front of you. He’s trying to explain something, but he’s stumbling over his words. His sentences are sloppy and grammatically incorrect, and you’re not even convinced he has a point.

You wouldn’t chuck him out the window, would you?! (Would you?!) So go easy on yourself. Cut yourself a bit of slack.

The only way to be objective is to forget about “this is good” or “this is terrible.”

Instead, use only “this works” or “this doesn’t work.”

It’s reasonable to say, “This chapter isn’t very effective.” Maybe it has no punch. Or it meanders aimlessly on its way to the point. Or the sentences are repetitious and boring. Or the idea isn’t clear. But you can’t say, “This chapter sucks.”

When you identify why your work isn’t effective, you’re also identifying how to turn it around!

And you can’t do that if you’re busy picking on yourself. So relax. Let’s just fix what isn’t working.