Included this slide in my final lecture for my creative writing class and am inordinately proud of it.

Well, this is more popular than I thought it would be. So *teacher voice* Let's unpack this a bit!

At a certain point, most writers I know become focused on producing publishable work. I know I did. My energy went almost solely to a cycle of outline-draft-revise-submit-revise-submit-submit-submit-revise-submit rinse and repeat.

I think this is particularly endemic after workshops like Clarion or MFA programs. Partly because both force you to produce work at a high volume, partly because there's an atmosphere of "we're here because we're serious about writing."

Writing is a craft, it's a process, it's studious, it's a marathon and not a sprint, it's labor, yes, all of these are true. But like...

It's also fucking around.

Fucking around is an intrinsic part of the writing process. Asking silly questions, trying on weird costumes, abandoning reality for a while to play pretend...

Can't find out if you don't fuck around first!

It's hard enough to let go of that pressure to always produce something amazing on command when you're a writer. (And let's not forget: if you're a woman, BIPOC, disabled, LGBTQ, an immigrant, a non-native English speaker, your failures are received with far less grace.)

As teachers, it's of the utmost importance to give writing students space to fuck around without fearing they're going to get a bad grade or, worse, ridiculed. (which happens in workshops! from both students AND teachers, and it makes me go full FLAMES ON THE SIDE OF MY FACE)

I try to instill acceptance and embrace of failure into my students. I put it on every syllabus I create ("Ambitious failures are always celebrated."). My workshops focus on "here's what I, the writer, tried to do" rather than "here's what I, the reader, think this should be."

So yeah. Carve out time for weird shit that might not work, half-baked ideas, and absolute garbage dug out from the gutters of your brain. Assert your right to write for pleasure or exploration or the sheer joy of not caring about the end product. Fuck around and find out.