Hello, readers! Thank you so much for reading last week’s post on finding your writing voice. Excited to be back again!  ChAoS!!!!! Hard core!!

Chaotic Good - The Long Conversation - Every

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2021-07-20 12:30:06

Hello, readers! Thank you so much for reading last week’s post on finding your writing voice. Excited to be back again! 

ChAoS!!!!! Hard core!!!!! This week, I’m sharing some thoughts on how embracing chaos can help us with the hardest writing problem of all: getting started! I share a few insights into some theories about why a state of chaos helps prompt creativity, including Betty Flowers’ “madman” persona and the Beat writers’ belief in “first thought, best thought” as the ultimate writing rule. I’ve also got a prompt to help you with the how of all this, that includes one of my favorite artifacts from the writing world: Jack Kerouac’s “Belief and Technique for Modern Prose.” Let’s ROCK! 🎸🤘

Fear of judgment—from ourselves as well as others—is nine times out of ten the biggest stumbling block to getting started on a piece of writing. 

The impulse to “self-edit” your own thoughts even as they’re tumbling out of your head is so strong among writers at all levels and stages of their careers, it’s practically universal. That judgment that our “first thoughts” are stupid and dumb can be completely paralyzing, and it can keep you stuck for years or forever, like the writer version of getting the yips. 

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