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Want to write more?

First start by shutting out your internal critic and editor. There is a time and a place for your sharp editorial skills and your critical eye. But writing early drafts is not the place or time. Make a deal with yourself to postpone checking for spelling, punctuation, syntax and overall excellence until you have made some solid decisions. Those include:

  • Deciding what's going to stay in your story.

    Where in the manuscript everything will finally be.

  • Eliminating all the flab that needs to be cut.

  • Once you have worked your way through enough drafts to have finalized the above, that's the time to start getting picky. Doing it any earlier is a source of productive avoidance. It looks like writing. It isn't. It's tinkering too early.

"But I can't resist fixing as I write." Then turn off your monitor. You can't be tempted to fix what you can't see. If you are using a laptop, put a piece of paper over the screen.