I strongly disliked writing in school.
Mostly because I wanted to write my final copy on the first try.
Here’s how I remember most of my essay questions going: (1) Spend 75% of my time thinking about how the hell to write the perfect first line. (2) See another student hand in their essay and realize I was almost out of time. (3) Freak out! (4) Forget about the opening line and just start spewing everything I knew about the question before time was up. (5) Leave last.
It’s amazing how much more I got done when I stopped worrying about the perfect first line.
And later, when I learned how to accept the idea of rough drafts, suddenly, writing became a whole lot easier and much more enjoyable. Who knew?
Maybe if we learned how to accept “rough drafts” in life and dropped the idea of needing to start things “perfectly,” life would become a lot easier, too.