As a writer, I would so much rather look at a crappy, rough draft that makes me question whether I deserve to even call myself a writer, than a blank page. I’d rather hate myself over a draft that is so bad that if anyone I know ever read it, I would have to walk into the sea, and those people that I know would be like, “We’ll miss her but at least this way, she can’t produce anymore terrible drafts.”
The blank page is scary because I know what comes next, utter crap. There’s no shortcut to your pretty good third draft or great final draft. They say that the only way out is through. I’ll add on to that. The only way through is via a humiliating first pass.
My theory is that when ideas are trapped in our brain, it’s the scaffolding, but what makes them actual, livable places is the process of writing itself. At one point in the writing process, you flow. Scientifically speaking, your subconscious takes over and spiritually speaking your ideas are being downloaded from on high. But you can’t write until you start writing. Ugh!
I could have the greatest idea for a movie that I can summarize in two thrilling sentences. A scientist discovers that humans have the innate power to enter other dimensions and travel through time. But if he reveals the secret, if he hands people the knowledge of what they can do, he puts everyone at risk, because world governments will move to crush their own citizens. Amazing idea, right? Let’s film it tomorrow! If I had to sit down and write this? It would all fall apart. There’s a lot of logic to writing, so many pieces to put into place. Writing is a slog.
When I’m faced with a blank screen, what gets me to actually start writing is utilizing what I’m skilled at, which is talking. As an ADHD human, my mind runs a million miles a minute. My fingers, despite being a fast typist, cannot keep up with my brain. If I lose my train of thought, as I’m trying to type super fast, it’s gone forever. If my inner critic is going wild, I may lose my nerve, my confidence, my motivation.
When I’m talking, I feel free to just riff because, Hey, I’m just spitballing here! What I used to do in the olden days is record a voice memo and then transcribe it. Last year, I started using WisprFlow, and I’m obsessed. I press one button. I can talk super fast and then when I take my hand off the button, the blank page is populated with a lot of babble. From there, I can do the part that actually is fun, which is editing and refining the crappy first draft, making something funnier or more dramatic or more emotional or more honest or more succinct.
It helps me just stop procrastinating the most important part of any writing - STARTING. If you need something to get you started so that you can move past the blank page, I recommend it as it really keeps up with me.
Full disclosure, WisprFlow is an AI tool. I fucking hate AI. I’m against ChatGPT, all of that shit. This is my one exception and here’s what I did to make it one. If you go to Settings - Data and Privacy, turn Privacy Mode and Cloud Sync off. That gets you Zero Data Retention which means nothing stored on their servers, nothing used for training. Speech-to-text does not use energy like generative AI that creates content or images. The carbon footprint is more akin to driving one mile in a gas-fueled car every year. I’m saying this not to convince you to use it but to just let you know, I really don’t fuck with AI unless I can feel okay about it - and those are my personal reasons.
I understand if you don’t want to touch anything that has the word AI. I just wanted to explain it, be clear, and let you decide for yourself.
