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A thread about garbage words.
Writing first drafts is hard for me. I completely believe that getting a first draft out is essential, even if its filled with words I need to change or delete. That belief is helpful but not sufficient. Here are some tricks that help me : https://twitter.com/aznchew/status/943570522406903809
Writing first drafts is hard for me. I completely believe that getting a first draft out is essential, even if its filled with words I need to change or delete. That belief is helpful but not sufficient. Here are some tricks that help me : https://twitter.com/aznchew/status/943570522406903809
1. I write placeholders and keep going. Especially for introductions and transitions:
- Intro tk here.
- Smooth transition tk here.
- Paragraph about X tk here.
- Intro tk here.
- Smooth transition tk here.
- Paragraph about X tk here.
2. Tk is my go-to placeholder. It means “to come” as in “I’ll handle this later.” It’s easy to control-F for “tk.”
I learned tk from @krgpryal, a skilled + *prolific* writer. I’m lucky to count her as a friend, mentor, and co-author. A sampling: http://katieroseguestpryal.com/writing/
I learned tk from @krgpryal, a skilled + *prolific* writer. I’m lucky to count her as a friend, mentor, and co-author. A sampling: http://katieroseguestpryal.com/writing/
3. If I notice that I’m stuck because I’m feeling bad about a turn of phrase or a word I can’t quite catch or the sneaking suspicion that my whole piece might be awful, I just write those feelings out into my draft and keep going.
4. I write notes to myself to try to keep focused on a task that is easy to stray from. The garbage-words note has been on my laptop for two days.
5. I lie to myself about how much easier revising and editing will be than writing a first draft. 
