Fiction Writers Mantra

For some reason, our first attempts to do something don't turn out as well as they could have.  Why is that?  When shooting, the first shot on the range is a cold shot that will most likely not hit its target.  When you cook a crepe on a heated pan, the first one turns a little too hard and rubbery to serve.  The first novels of a series tend to be the weakest of the bunch.  Of course, there's always the reverse tendency.  The first movie is always the best one, but maybe that's the exception that proves the rule.

Were the other ones really as good?

It's funny that I just wrote that.  I've always hated that saying.  It suggests that rules can be proven.  They can't.  There are no rules or measurements or standards other than the ones of our own making.  Do you think time cares how many seconds are passing?  The universe is 13.8 billion years old.  No.  Time don't give a crap.

How miles you think that is?

Not the point.  The first doohickey is usually the crappier of the group.  Much of my life (at least what I spent in school) I tried my damnedest to do things right the first time.  Solve the math problem without checking my work.  Write the final draft of the paper without the rough draft.  Most of the time it worked out, too.  But that doesn't always cut the mustard (what does that even mean?).  Sometimes you really need the cold shot.  The dry run.  The test that tells you if everything you've painstakingly put together is going to hold up to what you're going to do with it.

Doesn't it seem more efficient to do it like one of my school papers?  My teachers were always impressed.  But ultimately, I guess now I just really want to make the best possible thing I can.  Especially when it's something you care about.  You don't just wake up one day and knock it out before coffee and toast.  But all that takes work, don't it?  And god, we hate work!  I think that 9 out of 10 people probably have wonderful ideas for novels but won't write them because it's too much work.  I know it for a fact, actually.

If you are one of those people, I have an excellent piece of advice for you.  I've been working on it.  Where's the caps lock...THERE.  JUST FUCKING DO IT ALREADY.  Yes.  Writing is work.  So is breathing, so is thinking, so is blinking.  You're not going to stop doing those things are you?  Didn't think so.  Whatever it takes to get you started, just refer to that mantra in all caps.  Print it on a shirt or something.