This is draft number 31 in the past 45 days.
Less than 5 of them flowed freely and ended up being shared here.
The others received minimal consideration before I acknowledged I wasn’t ready to write them.
They now reside in my drafts folder awaiting the arrival of a relevant moment of inspiration or insight.
Just to be clear…
Each draft has a working title.
Some have an opening paragraph and a few potential subheadings.
A couple are several paragraphs long and have a subheading or two before they abruptly cease.
Others are merely a title intended to remind me of an episode of life I might write about someday.
Any chance that feels remotely familiar?
I’d hate to think I am the only one who struggles to move from an initial idea to a shitty first draft that merits further effort.
The obvious question is “What gets in the way?”
My major obstacles are…
Overthinking—getting lost in myriad options for opening paragraphs, subheadings, and possible insights worth sharing.
Inner doubts—am I the right messenger, will anyone care, or is this a blinding flash of the obvious?
Experience in academia—too much time spent writing research papers for journals built a style and structure into my writing I am constantly fighting to move past.
Becoming bored—losing interest after framing the title, content, and storyline because I already know where it leads.
Going too deep—my personal fascination with ideas, novelty, and possibilities can lead me down paths that likely won’t interest anyone else.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
So what’s the solution?
The flippant response is “I wish I knew.”
The practical one is “Trust the process and keep writing.”
For me that meant owning the above list of obstacles.
Once I accepted them as an inherent part of my process, it became easier to move past them.
Simply focusing on creating The Shitty First Draft always makes things easier (thanks to the amazing writing coach AJ Harper for that valuable label).
It doesn’t always work…
Sometimes I can only create ideas and descriptions of possible posts for days (or weeks or months).
Then one day it happens…
I open my dashboard and commit to one of the ideas—challenging myself to simply create an SFD (aka shitty first draft) from that writing session.
And usually it works (for a while)—thus the periodic appearance of posts on this blog interspersed with periods of silence.
One more thing…
What I’ve shared here is something it took me a long time to acknowledge and understand.
Earlier I referenced getting bored…and some might say it is my Achilles heel.
My curiosity and desire to know more (along with a bit of ADHD) leads me to chase the new thing that has captured my attention.
I enjoy that rhythm and tend to lean into it.
It’s probably not the best approach to creating regular content aligned around a central theme.
And at this point in my life, I doubt it will ever change (and I’m okay with that).
Maybe this post will help someone avoid the same fate (or accept that it is perfectly fine to live with it).
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