Write First, Then Edit
A four-word mantra for overcoming the difficultly of getting started
You probably know Dom Bonvissuto's work.
If you are an American sports fan, particularly an American football fan, no doubt you know the name Peter King. A giant in the industry, King is the kind of sports writer who writes deeply and passionately about his favorite subject. He therefore is both loved and hated in equal amounts by those who follow his work.
Bonvissuto, meanwhile, was a long-time editor of King's popular sports columns. He also is involved in a number of other ventures. One of those ventures was a men's lifestyle blog called Jeans & Ties, and it was here that my own path crossed with Bonvissuto.
In addition to writing about men's fashion and the latest-and-greatest tech and gear, Bonvissuto also produced a number of travel stories for J&T. This at the same time that I was beginning to travel more extensively myself. So after returning home from two separate trips, I pitched a couple of travel stories to Bonvissuto for the site and he agreed to give me a chance.
And I struggled.
As much as I loved traveling, I had trouble putting the words together to express the experiences of travel in an engaging way. Not only that, I was so obsessed with the word count proposed by Bonvissuto that I would write a couple sentences or paragraphs and immediately go back over them with a fine-toothed comb to get the numbers right.
After a few days of this, I reached out to Bonvissuto to let him know how it was going. I relayed my struggles to him. In return he gave me this simple, effective advice:
Write first, then edit.
What Bonvissuto noticed was an inexperienced writer struggling to hit the perfect word count, or write the perfect intro, or construct perfect paragraphs. What Bonvissuto knew is that there is no such thing as perfect. That you just need to do the thing, let the words spill out onto the page first, before you start trying to perfect it.
This advice gave me the focus needed to punch out two stories about trips to Prague and Iceland. But as time went on, I realized that this advice is more than just about writing a couple of travel stories.
If you wait until all of the conditions are perfect before you do anything, you will never do anything.
This goes for deciding to try to have children and start a family, for making a career move or starting your own business, or even going deeper on an existing practice in your life.
Now this does not mean to be reckless, of course. There are better times and worse times to start a new project, a new career, or a new family.
But when you are prepared, when you planned the best you could, when you did everything within your control, then the only thing left to do at that point is take the first step. Make the first move. Get started. Do the thing if you want to do the thing.
Expect it to be messy and complicated and difficult at the beginning too. You cannot grow a garden without getting your hands dirty. This is part of the experience.
Imagine something looking exactly like you envisioned it from the beginning. Tell me how many times that happened in your life before! It is important to have the end in mind when you begin, but you should not be married to it.
Besides, how boring would that be? In perfect there is no opportunity to rally your effort, test your endurance, and practice your adaptability. There is no challenge in perfect.
Prepare yourself, control what you can control, and then go. Let the words spill out onto the page. Begin and endure the journey, wherever it ends up taking you. Do first and then periodically review what you did and iterate as necessary.
Write first, then edit.
I listened to a Jordan Peterson podcast recently and he made a comment about how there is a production center and an editing center in the brain - you shouldn't try to edit while you produce or produce while you edit. This metaphor speaks to a common challenge I see in myself.
Especially when speaking, I catch myself trying to edit as the words come out - trying to find the perfect words and arrange them in the perfect way. This has the opposite effect and actually leads to a more fragmented way of speaking, and fluency is lost in the desire to optimize.
I just started the Coursera course entitled "Writing in the Sciences." It speaks to the power of the first few drafts - knowing they won't be perfect - then tip and tricks on how to communicate your message effectively and clearly.
Thank you for the reminder. "If you wait until all of the conditions are perfect before you do anything, you will never do anything." Especially in January where many of us are trying to make goals happen. But also, I remember in college I had an amazing college professor and her advice to me was your title". Write First, Then Edit". She trained us to make 5 drafts, yes 5 drafts of each of our papers. The first week was our "free write" No sentences, punctuations, etc. Second week and so forth and kept cleaning it up. I am by no means a great writer but that changed the way I thought about writing.