Weekly Ask Me Anything: Writer’s Common Pitfalls

As part of my ongoing Ask Me Anything, I’m working my way through a short list of questions found on a website. Have a question? Ask. I’ll answer. Want to know something in general or about me specifically, I’m an open book.

What are common traps for aspiring writers?

I’m going to give you two here. There are more but to me, these are the biggest ones.

Overthinking / perfectionism.

I’m a firm believer in there’s no such thing as perfect. I can only get things as best I can and that will have to be good enough. I believe too many people who say they want to write get hung up in the belief that it has to be ‘perfect’ and that keeps them from even starting, or puts them in an endless cycle of editing that keeps them from going anywhere.

You have to give yourself permission to write badly. Badly written can be fixed. Blank pages are much harder.

Inner Editor

That’s the voice in the back of your head that tells you that what you’re writing/building/whatever is not good enough, it’s stupid, no one will ever read/like it.

Lock that bitch up. She’s wrong. Like ALWAYS. You are your own worst critic and she’s creation of your mind. It seems dumb, but one thing that actually helps is to find an image (proprietary images are fine, this is for personal use, you’re not selling it anywhere) whether in a magazine, book, or online that you print out. But take that physical image and lock it up. Put it in a toolbox or a cash box or even a jewelry box and lock it up. Or depending on how dark you want to go, torch it. Lay the picture on the grill, light it up and watch it burn.

It’s shockingly freeing.