The one thing keeping you from writing your book

Are you brave enough to suck?

It takes guts to write our stories, our books. It takes patience, determination, and commitment, and yes, the willingness to suck.

When we write, our words aren’t going to come out perfectly the first time. Heck, they may not even come out right the second time. And for some reason, we still try to avoid sucking at all costs.

We avoid trying new things; we avoid taking risks; we stick to what we know we are good at. All to avoid sucking. Heck, we even avoid the things we love because the possibility of sucking at what we're good at is also terrifying.

Instead of sucking at your book's first draft and doing the things you know you should be doing to publish your book, you like to do more romanticized things like...

> Dream about your book. There's not suckage in the dreams.

> Think about what it will feel like when your book is written. This is a great feeling. We often don't like to think about the work part.

> Create a website for your book. I've heard this one so often. The thing is, you don't need a website, but this is a great way to avoid our book and sucking at all costs.

> Dream up other book ideas, you know, for the second book because that way we can divert our attention from the first book, and well...not suck.

> Think about the people in your life you will need to talk to about book one before you publish. Making this book is way easier than actually writing the book.

But when it comes down to the action, you avoid it at all costs...

> I don’t know where to begin, literally, do I just start typing?

> I don’t know the order I want my book to go in so I can't start

> I don’t have enough time

> I need to set 4 hours aside to write, and if I don't have that time, I can't do it.

> I believe all the answers like plot, characters, and ordering will come to me while not writing

Woah, woah, woah. Hold up, my friend.

Are you just scared about sucking?

I get it. Trying to share your story with an imaginary person who you hope will pick up your book someday is scary, uncomfortable. Writing one sentence after the other knowing that they are cliched and don’t really make sense is sometimes hard to bear.

But you have to start somewhere, and that’s the difference between a beginner and a master.

A master like Elizabeth Gilbert or Cheryl Strayed knows they will write words with the sole purpose of them being deleted the next day. They may write 2,000 words one day only to have one sentence fit into their books.

Masters know it is going to suck…A LOT, and they are sucking and failing more times than beginners are even trying. They are writing thousands of bad sentences and that’s how they get to the good ones. The ones that don’t suck.

Let go of the pressure and need for perfection. You don’t need to get it right the first try.

Everything you read (from the shampoo bottle to the newspaper to the book you're comparing yours to) is a FINAL DRAFT. No one starts there. It’s an unrealistic expectation.

If you look at all the drafts of a best selling author, you will see they started with sentences that sucked and words that were less than perfect. Maybe they even had cliches left and right.

Their first draft started where you are right now. In the major suckage zone.

Let yourself start somewhere.

It’s time to get to work.