Write On! :: Discuss the art and craft of writing

If you're choked by the fear of writing something that isn't up to your own standards, or even just a little indimidated by it, you're definitely not alone.

Some people freeze, and never write. Some people write, and refuse to let anybody see it because it isn't good enough. Some people play tricks on their inner editor, by doing "dare to be bad" type challenges. There are all kinds of coping strategies.

I admit it, I can be a bit of a writing snob sometimes. I won't let myself write something bad on purpose, and I hold command of the language in high esteem.

And yet, I did NaNoWriMo, which is often promoted in a "quality? what's that?" kind of way, and for many participants it's a large-scale "dare to be bad."

"Dare to be bad." It appeals to some but not to me. Since that's not really my thing, I (and probably many others) took NaNo as a "dare to learn" challenge. Different writing strategies, different styles, different structures. And for me, it seems to have worked.

Now I can set myself smaller challenges - an article instead of a novel, or even just a short random passage like my "Spring Melt" diary - where I try a style that I'm not familiar with.

Dare to learn.

The difference, to me, is that "dare to be bad" is about getting your pen moving, and "dare to learn" is about stretching the boundaries of what you can write. They're for different things, and work for different people.