A facebook friend mentioned she was giving a presentation to a high school class and asked the probing question: what do you wish you’d known about writing when you were in high school. Uh, everything?
But here’s what I wrote:
If you want to write, the sooner you start to write a lot, the sooner you’ll get better at it. Like anything else, it’s the practice that makes us improve. If we wait to be a good writer before we start writing, we’re just postponing our practice and our improvement and maturity as a writer. Like sports or a musical instrument or any other skill. Don’t be afraid to write something awful. Don’t be afraid to write something mediocre. Just write. Put the words on the page, and then the next time you write, you can put better words on the page. Fear should not be our master!
