Getting ready for NaNoWriMo? Check your baggage.

What’s In Your Writing Baggage?

Write fast, then fix things.

Every time you sit down to write, you bring extra baggage with you. And, just as with the airlines, that extra baggage can cost you dearly.

Your writing baggage might be filled with past experiences in the educational system: college, high school, or before. Perhaps you struggled with language mechanics or diagramming sentences, and now have perpetually low expectations for your writing.

The educational system doesn’t always teach students how to understand and honor their own writing process.

Conversely, people who consider themselves “good writers” carry a burden of high standards. They won’t settle for less than pristine, sparkling prose or intricately plotted stories. First drafts rarely meet expectations.

These inner burdens can prevent us from writing. They make the blank page intimidating.

At worst, those stresses become an unsurmountable hurdle that prevent us from sharing our thoughts through writing.

When we have no choice, when we must do the writing, the echoes of critical voices in our head make us question every sentence or agonize over each word.