Throw it Out!

The hardest part of writing is starting. Not just the act of finally pushing some keys but starting to say what it is you have in mind to say. I erased the initial first sentence of this post, in fact.

The editorial rule is to throw out the first three paragraphs of your article. It seems that the first few paragraphs are generally your mind warming up. It’s no good and is actually unnecessary.

And that, perhaps, is the mark of a truly professional writer. We don’t mind throwing our words out when that’s what’s called for. We know our prose is far from deathless. We want our writing to be good, even excellent, and if that means tossing out bunches of words, that’s what we do.