I am a worrier. It’s one of my many flaws. It’s one I’m constantly addressing. It’s one I sometimes escape when I write.
“Sometimes” is the operational word, and even that “sometimes” has been borne of practice. It’s taken hours and hours of writing before I have learned to immerse myself in the act at hand. It has been the result of consciously choosing not to worry about potential flaws in logic or errors in punctuation and grammar.
The choice is, in some ways, similar to valet parking. I choose to give my keys to the valet. I choose to not be responsible for my car for a certain length of time so that I can focus on whatever it is that I’m doing: going to dinner with friends, attending a networking event, et cetera.
I know I can retrieve my car any time I choose and, when I do, that worrying self can and will come to bear. It will require revisions to and editing of the writing. It will demand that I seek the right word. It will ask that I consider tone and audience and the merits of a semi-colon versus a comma or end stop.
Until it’s time to retrieve the keys, though, I put that worrying self on hold. I check her at the curb. I stop worrying – as best I can – and start writing.
Write first with abandon. Edit later. No worries:) Cheers! Kaarina
@KDillabough Indeed. It’s the only way to get any writing done. 🙂
Many times the things we worry about never happen, I worry less the older I get. You can always correct a post, right?
@lisabuben290 Of course! I think for first-time writers, though, the worry can be overwhelming. It can keep them from writing. That’s what I was trying to communicate with the post. Perhaps I wasn’t successful.