Write to Prove how Bad You Are.

Why this is the best advice I’ve ever received

Photo by Peter Pryharski on Unsplash

We all know the feeling. You sit down to write. You stretch your arms out over your head and crack your knuckles because you saw it in a cartoon as a kid and thought that’s what you’re supposed to do before you start a masterpiece.

And of course that is exactly what you are about to write. A masterpiece. You’re brilliant after all. None of these other losers know it, but you are secretly the greatest writer of all time.

You open up your document. Fingers red hot and ready to flow. A minute passes. Another. Five more. It’s coming. The brilliant perfect masterpiece will come. You know what, I just need to get up and grab some coffee. Brilliance needs coffee.

Three weeks later you haven’t written anything because it turns out you’re not brilliant at all, you’re an idiot and you have no idea what you’re doing.

Writing is so easy when it is in my head. In my head, there is this perfect story, perfect novel, perfect screenplay that just magically exists. But getting that perfect story out onto the paper. Oof. Suddenly whatever I write never feels like it is good enough. And when it never feels like it is good enough, I will never start. Because that first sentence will never be as good as the idyllic fantasy that exists in your mind. It will always fall short because when it is actually on paper it is no longer otherworldly. It is just some sentence that you wrote.

I used to fall into the cycle constantly. Writing and rewriting and rewriting the very first sentence of a story, trying to achieve absolute perfection, but never being able to achieve it. Because perfection doesn’t exist. Obviously. If I was actually a good writer, I would have known that.

One day I was watching YouTube and came across an interview with Dan Harmon. I am a big fan of both Community and Rick and Morty so I thought it was worth a watch. I was half watching, and half playing Candy Crush or something else equally inane. But then I remember perking up when he is asked what advice he would give young writers. And then he said it.

Don’t write to prove you are a good writer. Write to prove you are a bad writer.

It is confusing advice at first. When I repeat it to people, they will often give me a strange look of confusion. But they are words I now live by.

Writing is confusing because the ideas in your head are so perfect, but there is this huge struggle to get them out onto the page. And the only way to get them out onto the page perfectly is to be a good writer.

Unfortunately, when you cannot get them out onto the page, it is a paralyzing feeling. You tense up. You bang your head. You give up. And the idea dies because you decide you will come back to it on some unknown day when it somehow comes out easier. And so you never end up writing.

Which is fine except that if you never end up writing, you can never become a better writer. And if you never become a better writer, you are going to keep banging your head on that first idea for eternity. You will never write it because you will never be able to write what has been built up in your head. Because you suck.

So instead of trying to write this perfect thing, instead of trying to prove to yourself that you are a good writer, just write to prove you are a bad writer. Write knowing that what you write will be awful, because you are a bad writer. And whatever you write will prove that. Because guess what? Once you go into this mentality, knowing that the final result is going to be bad, all the pressure is off. You are now capable of writing anything because you are free of the shackles of perfection.

I had this exact thing happen while trying to start this article. I wanted to convey how important this advice has been for me. I wanted to make sure I worded it the perfect way. I wanted to make sure I expressed myself in a way that made me sound articulate and smart and inspiring. I couldn’t start because it was too much pressure. Then I remembered that all I had to do was write something and let it be bad and the words started flowing.

Ironically, now that you can write your awful ideas that you hate, you are getting your reps in. You are writing. Even if it is bad, every time you get another rep in you are getting a little bit better until one day you are a good writer. But you can’t do it until you write. And you can’t write with that weight of perfection sinking you.

Next time you are stuck and don’t know where or how to start, remember that not only is it allowed to be bad, but it is supposed to be bad. So write that next piece of shit like the awful writer you are!

Link to one of several times Dan Harmon has given a similar version of the same advice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNvuxa2Q-18&list=FL-NsviKrnfm_02gm6VkUlkg&index=2