Many people make writing extra-difficult for themselves by striving to create a finished product in a single draft or, if not a finished product, at least something so close to being finished that it needs only a bit of attention to spelling and punctuation before being sent on its way. This is comparable to believing that, if only you could cut it right, a fir tree should fall to earth in the form of a split level house with two and a half baths. It s a silly expectation. Perhaps people want it to be true of writing because writing seems so painful. But if you ask yourself why writing seems so painful, the answer is likely to be because the expectation is set way too high.
People read final drafts by professionals, but they write first drafts by amateurs.
The contrast is disheartening until you learn that no professional ever expects to produce a finished product in a single try. If the final draft is the split level house, the professional remembers setting out the fir seedlings in the mud. There s a lot of growth and shaping between the seedlings and the house. So the smartest thing you can do as a writer is give yourself permission to get things wrong or only half right in an early draft. In other words, take the pressure off and let your first draft be an exploration.