🍴Don't dam your ideas

I love a good microholiday!

I drew this picture the other day and was deciding when to share it and tomorrow just-so-happens to be National Coloring Day so here we are!

As writers, it’s easy to fall into the “edit while you write trap.”

I know I do it.

I try and get my work to almost publish worthy on the first pass.

I shift sentences.
Delete whole sections.
I reread it countless times.

It adds tension to my writing.

It’s almost like I’m creating a dam that’s blocking my wave of ideas and only a few slip through the cracks.

How much better would a piece of content be if I removed those blocks and just let the ideas flow?

This quote from Terry Pratchett is a good reminder:

When you think of it like that, the pressure washes away.

The first draft is a conversation with yourself. The final version is your conversation with the world.

Let the words like a wave flow to the shoreline. Keep what you want and let the rest pull back into your ocean of ideas.

Do you try and edit your work while you write, too?