Write Crap

By Marty Nemko

A fellow graduate student told me, "I had been unable to get anywhere on my dissertation for six months, and yesterday my advisor told me two words that unlocked me: write crap. It's infinitely easier to revise your way into good work than to come up with brilliance out of thin air." Now, whether it's a writing roadblock or any other problem, I simply write whatever comes to mind and start revising. It quickly gets better, and it's much more fun seeing the ongoing progress than staring at a blank screen.