One of the biggest things I learnt during the first year of my MA was to just write. When you open up the file and are looking at a blank page, you may have a bit of an idea or you may have an empty wasteland in your brain. Either way, you just stare at the screen. You start typing a few words, realise it’s rubbish or not what you want to say, and delete them. You write a few more. Delete them.
I’ve wasted so much time either staring at a blank page or typing and deleting the first sentence over and over. Getting going was always a hurdle and it was rare that I actually got over that hurdle and got something down on paper.
The MA showed that a first draft (of anything: an email, a letter, a story, a blog post…) was just that. A first draft. And that first drafts are meant to be rubbish. That’s the point of editing. Nothing I put down is set in stone. After writing it, I can edit and change or even completely delete it.
This awareness has revolutionised how I write. When I catch myself struggling over the perfect sentence or just “staring at the blank page before me” 🎤🎶 I remind myself of this break through and just start typing. Anything. Whatever is top of mind. Sometimes I get lucky and the first thing I put down is what I stick with. Other times it’s a single sentence on one topic then I jump to another then another but at some point it turns into a single topic I’m happy with and I just keep writing. Occasionally the whole thing will get binned but more and more often, this ends up being something useful. With a bit of editing of course.
As this blog is brand new, I’m aiming to start off trying to post frequently, hopefully multiple times a week. No one is going to visit a blog with a single post on it! So about 20 minutes ago I opened Word and stared at the blank page. I didn’t know what I wanted to say. I didn’t even know if I wanted to do something creative or just a rambling of my life. I started, I deleted. Two or three times. And then I remembered this tip. And so I just started writing! And as I was thinking about this tip, that’s what I wrote about. And it actually turned into a good topic for a post!
Something Original 
Let me know your thoughts!