It's Okay to Suck

[image error]Several years ago I was lucky enough to see author David Sedaris give a talk in California. He told us a story that really stood out to me. He said a women came up to him after his show one time and asked if he would read her nineteen-year old daughters manuscript. She raved about what a good writer her daughter was and how much he would enjoy her work. Sedaris turned to the women and said, "I don't have to read it to know that it sucks." The woman stood stunned, so Sedaris added, "I know it sucks because she is nineteen and that is what she is suppose to be doing right now, writing things that suck. That's the only way she will learn. You should not be pushing her to be anything more than what she is right now."

When he told that story to the audience it elicited a few nervous giggles and a few more blank stares. I was one of those blank stares. I was around the same age and was hoping everything I wrote would be a best seller and launch me into stardom. When I look back to the things I wrote then, I realize that everything I wrote sucked too. I think about what he said differently now. He was giving us permission to suck, which is not something many people do. We all have to start somewhere so why not start with crap? They say it takes a writer a million written words to find their voice. If you don't allow yourself to suck then you won't even get to word two. We are so afraid that our writing will suck that we allow ourselves to fall into weeklong fits of writers block. We would rather not write at all than write something that wasn't any good. The best advice I ever received about getting over writer's block was that even if all you can do is write crap, then get a shovel and move it around a little. Eventually your brain will figure something out. So, my advice for the day is to go out there and write. While you are at it, write badly for an entire day and see what happens.