Hemingway Tee

Starting is the first step to having written. Starting is also the hardest step. There is fear, perfectionism, uncertainty--all of them standing in the way of putting pen to paper. Every writer knows that just about any excuse to avoid getting started will work.

I have too many ideas! I need coffee first! Let me check my email before I begin, just in case.

What separates the amateurs from the pros is that they get the first sentence down. And then the second, and then the third. Until they have what looks like a story or an article or a chapter or a play or a whole book. And then they get to work.

Ernest Hemingway recognized this trait in the important, successful authors he knew (himself, first and foremost, obviously) and with this timeless mantra he freed generations of aspiring writers:

“The First Draft of Anything Is Shit”