Writing nonfiction is like sculpture, a matter of shaping
the research into the finished thing.
the research into the finished thing.
— Joan Didion
All weekend I've been obsessed about a seven-year-old who's suffering writer's block. Her challenge is no small matter: the block is so immovable, it's affecting her schoolwork.
Despite all the ready advice for overcoming writer's block, writers of every age struggle with beginnings.
I certainly did, until I encountered a metaphor for writing that helped me leave writer's block behind.
Writing is like sculpting in clay.
Your first draft is like that armature: although ugly and crude, it allows you quickly to start adding and subtracting bits of clay—words—to produce the final form.
With your armature built, creating a second, third, fourth and fifth draft becomes easy, because you're simply adding and removing words as you work to refine the form. Audiences never see that activity, either.
All they see, for better or worse, is your published piece.
Just as no sculptor ever sweats the armature, no writer should never sweat the first draft.
Who cares if it's weird and unsightly—no one will ever know.
