Be Not Anxious and Write!

One of my writers is a bit of a stress-case. He agonizes over his copy, second-guessing himself, cutting off his productivity because he's afraid of putting down the wrong word. Invariably, he hands me his copy with a wince, believing it to be awful. It is almost always excellent.

Self-confidence is difficult for writers to attain. Is it fear of judgment more than fear of failure? Perhaps we give the page too much reverence. Back when I first started and the page was actually made of paper, there was a certain value to that. Now the opposite is true. To revere the digital page is to waste time instead of paper. Get the words down! Lay some virtual brick and worry about rearranging later!

And now the flip side; I occasionally edit people's novels and there is much to be said about learning your craft. Sometimes I feel I'm getting paid just to stay awake. I applaud them for getting the words down, and I suppose I wouldn't receive a paycheck if they learned the basics of story structure and compelling prose, but being able to push those bricks around and tear down redundant or irrelevant walls is equally important.

The key, I guess, is to be able to recognize good work even when it's yours. My employee would certainly save a lot of stress.