Don’t Stand in Your Own Way

Today’s tip is simple and can be applied to any creative endeavor, but first let’s identify the problem. As a creative person, the biggest obstacles you’ll have to overcome are those you throw in your own path.

Let me provide a quick list of excuses I have said, and that I’ve heard from other creative people:

• I need to take a class first.
• I need to get a laptop, graphic tablet, Word program, (insert your own items here).
• I need to go to a workshop first.
• I need to get a degree in writing, art, photography, etc.
• I need an MFA in creative writing.
• I need to read about how to write, how to develop characters, how to plot, how to create conflict, etc.

I’m sure there are plenty of other excuses you’ve told yourself that can be added to this list. But hear this, these are all different versions of fear, a way of telling yourself that you’re not good enough as you are to start pursuing what you’re passionate about, or driven to create. Don’t let this fear masquerading as legitimate avenues of self-improvement keep you from creating.

All of these things, these obstacles, may help in improving your craft, or make it easier, but none of them is needed to start writing (or whatever your art form may be).

Let me put out some simple truths:

• No one starts writing from a perfect place. It all comes out needing work.
• You won’t improve until you start writing.

So my tip is simple, although sometimes hard to do, start writing. Now. Quit putting obstacles in your path. The rest can come later, but the writing should come now. It works. I know because I’ve spent a good deal of time decluttering my own path.

“This is how you do it: You sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it’s done. It’s that easy, and that hard.” Neil Gaiman