I love this poster. It makes a great point without saying something like Get off your rear end and get to writing. There is another piece of advice that says something like Apply butt to chair, fingers on keyboard. Write!
Yes, it does not matter if you are making mistakes, or not writing very well. It is more important that you're making the effort. Go ahead and let happen what will happen.
There is no guarantee that what we write is going to be award-winning prose or poetry. Nope. My own theory is that the more we write, the better our work will be. I hate to use a cliche, but the practice makes perfect theory is right on. We should all realize that when we look at the results of our early writing days compared to the present. Some of what we wrote way back when is cringe worthy, I'm sure.
What kind of mistakes do we make when we write, especially those first drafts? Here's a partial list:
- repeating thoughts and words
- spelling errors
- tense mistakes
- point of view errors
- using too many passive verbs
- exceedingly long sentences
- information dump in fiction (sounding like a textbook in the middle of a fiction story)
- unnecessary words (just, really, very and others)
- punctuation (commas are problematic for many)
- weak opening paragraph
- weak concluding paragraph
- fiction too predictable
There are others, but that gives you enough to worry about. Hopefully, these kinds of mistakes are made in your first draft, and you correct them when you do your revising and editing. If you consider a story, essay or article finished, but it has many of the errors above, the end result is going to be a rejection rather than an acceptance if you submit your work in hopes of publication.
Don't worry if you're making mistakes. As the poster tells us, it means you're writing and that is the number one activity we want to see.
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