get good at being bad

Everybody procrastinates, right? (No, Traci, just you.) But if you find yourself constantly procrastinating when it comes to your writing, maybe you should listen to Joel Saltzman in If You Can Talk, You Can Write:

"If you want to create massive writer's block, insist on being a perfectionist; if you want to snuff out the creative impulse, insist on being a perfectionist; if you want to torture yourself for the rest of your life for never being good enough, insist on being a perfectionist."

Saltzman continues:

"PERFECTIONISM LEADS TO PARALYSIS, WHICH LEADS TO PROCRASTINATION."

Could this be you? Are you already revising your first sentence before you've completed your fourth one? Does your fear of never writing anything great keep you from writing anything at all?

Today is the day to break the cycle. Your task? Write something bad. Really bad. Embarrassingly awful. And even as what you're writing becomes more and more horrid, you must not stop. Keep writing truly hideous prose or poetry for at least twenty minutes. I dare you.

posted by lit lover at 9:57 AM