Thank you for your wonderful feedback, Jeanne. I suspect the sense of ‘freedom’ is a large part of what makes writing so scary, particularly in the early stages. Sometimes, we have to set our own boundaries just to give ourselves less vastness in the realm of inspiration and creativity.

You’re right about first drafts. When we write without inhibition, we write to our full potential. Writing in some ways is like crafting a painting: you work in layers to allow yourself to make mistakes, make changes, and to build effects which give extra depth and brilliance to the work. No one else sees everything that happens behind the scenes, it’s just part of the process of creating a masterpiece.

For most writers, first drafts present a wonderful opportunity to free our creative energy and use our right-brain abilities to create something of value that has never existed before. This is the most magical part of our work and often the most exhilarating step of the writing process. (Of course, many of us let our left-brain editing tendencies get out of hand at this stage, thereby interrupting the creative flow of our work by trying to perfect it as we go. I tend to be guilty of this “transgression.”)

While there may never be a perfect story, there will always be some perfectly wonderful ones — and if we’re willing to work at it (and to believe in ourselves), we may even have the privilege of creating some of them!

<3
Jeanne