Start before you're ready

It doesn't have to be perfect. Just make a start.

Since I’ve started a Substack newsletter (before I feel ready), it seems appropriate to dive right in with a familiar piece of advice: Start before you’re ready. But what does this actually mean? And why is it a good idea?

Have you ever delayed starting a piece of writing until you’ve read just one more book for research? Agonized over hitting the ‘publish’ button on a blog post? Put off launching your author website because you need to get your branding just right? Or hesitated so long over an endlessly-tweaked email that it languishes forever in your drafts folder? 

It’s human nature to wait for the right conditions before embarking on a new project - especially one that we’re sharing with the world and feel we’ll be judged on. We want to feel prepared, confident, competent - and above criticism. We fear failure and maybe even ridicule. But you can’t please everyone - and writing in secret forever isn’t a great career option for would-be authors. Being creative comes with risks: of being judged, criticised, rejected - or simply ignored. Yet it has many rewards too. Not just external ones such as sales and critical acclaim, either. Intrinsic ones too - such as the pleasure of creating and sharing your work, and connecting with an audience.

Or maybe you just feel overwhelmed. Daunted by the scale of the project you’re taking on. So you put off the task because you don’t feel up to it.

Reasons you should start before you’re ready

Some things benefit from a LOT of preparation. If you want to be an astronaut, you’ll need a lengthy and comprehensive training programme to make sure you’re absolutely ready for that space walk. If you want to be a brain surgeon, medical school is a good idea. But if you want to be a writer… well, you can just sit down and write something. You don’t need any special qualifications: writing makes you a writer.

Here are a few reasons to start now:

1. Perfectionism is your enemy. Perfectionism leads to procrastination - and can stop us from getting anything done at all. Which isn’t great for creative people who need to produce work. If procrastination is the thief of time, perfectionism will rob you of your creativity. 

2. You need to fail. No one wants to fail. But it’s part of the iterative, creative process of being a writer. I’m not a big fan of that familiar Samuel Beckett ‘fail better’ quotation. But you do need to fail, as it’s part of learning and growth. Failure is part of success. The bigger risk is doing nothing.

3. Starting creates momentum. It’s harder to start something after a long break. The inertia created by not writing can build, and make you feel like giving up altogether. But just a small start can get you back into the habit, spark ideas and help you develop your writing. Research shows that we find a task much less aversive once we get started than when we’re avoiding it. Even if we don’t finish it, we feel better about ourselves, more in control and more optimistic.

4. Getting it done is better than getting it perfect. If you have deadlines, if you write for a living, you’re more likely to just get that piece off your desk and move on - because you need the money. If your writing is more speculative, and you don’t have a contract, you might keep polishing it forever. Think like a professional and get it done.

Part of developing an author mindset is to think like a professional writer. Professional journalists and authors don’t have the luxury of perfectionism or procrastination. They have to file their copy or submit their manuscript, on time, in order to get paid. Even if they’re not completely happy with it.

How to get started now - without overthinking

Starting before you’re ready means making a small, imperfect, start on your project. It works because, if you’re a perfectionist, you’ll never feel ready. So you need to short-circuit your overthinking, bypass your fears - and just get writing.

It doesn’t have to be perfect, or your best work - or even any good. No one’s going to see the first draft of your book anyway - you’re just drafting some words to improve on later. Writing is re-writing - and your first draft is supposed to be rubbish. The memoirist and novelist Allegra Huston doesn’t even call this drafting - she calls it generating material - which I love, as it takes the pressure off even more. 

Here are a few ways to get started now:

• Switch off your internal critic. Easier said than done, but remember that you’re in generating material mode - not editing mode. Just write, in a stream-of-consciousness way, for 10 minutes. Or for three pages, if you want to follow Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages practice. Write anything. It’ll get you started - and it might generate some gems you can use later.

• Don’t over-research. This is tough if you’re writing nonfiction. But falling down research rabbit holes can stop you writing. Try to write some continuous prose, as a way of exploring what you think about your subject, without constantly checking your reference materials or looking stuff up on the internet. Leave gaps and notes-to-self that you can fill in with research and fact-checking later. 

• Accept that it won’t be perfect. It might be terrible - and that’s OK! You can work on improving it later. Some people call their rotten first draft a ‘vomit draft’. Just get it all out. But you don’t have to write an entire draft in one go.

• Start small. This is particularly important if you struggle with feelings of overwhelm. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step - and a book begins with a single sentence. Don’t think about tackling a whole manuscript. Write for 10 minutes. Or 100 words. As Margaret Atwood said: “A word after a word after a word is power.” Your first few words will gradually build into something bigger.

“A word after a word after a word is power” - Margaret Atwood

The first step towards success is simply to start. There is no perfect time: now is good. Are you reading this on your phone? If not, get it out. Write down a couple of sentences, right now, in your Notes app, Google Docs, or whatever you prefer.

New Year is a great time for new beginnings. So what are you going to start this week? Let me know in the comments.