Person A: I have a book keeping me up all night so I’m too tired to actually write it. … And I’m convinced it sucks.
Person B: I guarantee it doesn’t suck. You don’t write suck. And if it’s keeping you up all night, that means your brilliant Writer brain is processing it, so it’s only getting better. Courage, goddess, courage!
Person C: Hugs. Ever had those moments when you read other people’s words and you’re like “my stuff doesn’t sound anything like this?” And you start feeling like you’re not a real writer?
Person D: Oh. You mean a day that ends in -y … Yep.
Person B: All the time. But as the only agent I ever loved told me once when I was having that same crisis, “You can’t write that author’s book. But they can’t write yours, either.”
Person C: I feel like I’m so boring in comparison though
Person B: 1) You almost certainly are not boring; 2) this is the first draft; you’ll be tightening it up and making it more exciting later; right now, get it on the fucking page
Erin Penn: There have been people who books I read that make me not write for a time (Darren Kennedy is one), but at the end of the day, they don’t have my voice and I don’t have theirs. My music isn’t their music – they can’t sing the songs I sing. Sing loud – sometimes you will sing row-your-boat, and sometimes it will be bohemian-rhapsody.
Any song sung requires practice – from first draft to final performance. And the first time, singing a new song sucks.
But remember, no one needs to hear the practice. Only the witness the final performance.
