Persistence

“You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it.

That’s why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.”

― Octavia E. Butler

I wrote a lot as a kid and I continue to do so to this very day. My stories from my youth were horrible. Okay. Maybe they were creative. But everything else was embarrassing. I also ran low on ideas. As Gertrude Stein once wrote, I had the honey but it wouldn’t pour. I think as I read more books (voraciously) across genres and also non-fiction, it opened me up to what was possible. Voices blossomed. I never gave up writing. Sometimes I would just write one sentence. Other times I would wrote three pages of indulgent crap. I learned how to be a better editor of my work and to write more directly. Learning to write is a practice that requires persistence. Every day you must write. Even when all you can think of is a single word or two. There is nothing wrong with a one sentence poem. I’ve learned I have to write and I have to edit. I have to do both in ritual form. Edit is the least glamorous part of writing but it must be done. Your first draft is for you. Your second draft is for the audience.