Hi,

A confession.

When I open Active Campaign to write this email, I quite often have no earthly idea what I'm going to say to you. In fact, I've usually written half the email before I happen upon the point of it.

This, I've learned, is just how I work.

Instead of deciding upon and outlining a controlling idea:

• I type-delete-type-delete until I finally find the right first line.
• Then I lay down sentence two.
• Then three.
• Then, eventually, sentences 47 and 632.
• Along the way, I use the backspace key a lot.
  
  

Of course, this method (which, by the way, got me through hundreds of pages of writing in grad school) isn't exactly what They would call "efficient."

I used to feel embarrassed by this. People would ask about my creative process, and my cheeks would go pink and hot.

"I mean... I just... start? And then I start again? And I do that over and over and over again until, eventually, I'm done?"

"OK, so how many revisions do you do?"

"Oh, like eleventy billion. Because I revise as I go."

"You don't... just pound out a complete rough draft?"

"I do not."

"You edit? As you go?"

"I do."

"But ... that's not how you're supposed to write."

*Sigh.*

Look, I know that's not how I'm "supposed to" write. Mrs. Lucky told me that in 11th grade, and people who write about writing agree with her.

But my brain doesn't care about "supposed to." And when I've tried to write the "right" way, it doesn't feel good—the process or the outcome.

So I'm learning to...

Pep Talk #046: Trust your process.
No matter what you do, someone will tell you you're doing it wrong. And if you spend too much time comparing how you do your thing to how someone else does your thing, you may be the person criticizing your process.

Just don't do that to yourself.

If your process works for you, you can keep it at-is—even if it's weird, inefficient, or wears out your proverbial delete key. Trust your process.

Is this just a me-problem? Do you doubt your own process? What's a "should" you're working out right now?

What do They know, anyway?
Kelley

P.S. Yes, there's some room for process improvement. But maybe not when it comes to creativity. Let your brain work the way it wants to work, I say.

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