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Write That Book: Get it Clear, Get it Down,
Get it Out by Serena Williamson, PhD
Price $15.00 >> 
 That
First Draft
First drafts are for getting down, not getting good.
Commit the above nine words to memory. They will save your writing
life, as they did mine. Many years ago, when I wrote my first piece
for publication, a chapter in a medical textbook, my co-author,
more experienced in academic writing than I at the time, quoted
those words to me when I was struggling to make sense of the volume
of research that I had done for the chapter. He was so right!
Think of yourself as a potter. First you have to mix the clay and
get it to just the right consistency. Then you have to throw it
on the wheel and shape it, then you fire it in a kiln, then you
glaze it, then you fire it again. You don’t just wake up one
morning and create a glazed pot all in one shot. So why do we expect
that with our writing? The real fun with writing comes later on,
when you get to sharpen it up, and make the words do exactly what
you want them to do. Now I am not saying just throw the words onto
the paper … or maybe I am.
You have set yourself a daily objective. A best-selling author
friend of mine writes three pages per day. When that is done, she
goes on with the rest of her day. I have adopted this technique
for myself. When I wake in the morning, after I do some breathing
and meditation, I make a cup of herb tea and sit with my computer
in my special spot. I take my laptop computer into the living room,
which is brightly lit with the morning sun. I sit in my favourite
spot on the couch, and I do not stop until …well that part
varies.
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