Do it Fast

If you want to get good at something, and you want to get good at it quickly, you should do it faster.

What bloody brilliant advice. It fell into my inbox this morning, via Mr. Matt Tanner, whose email address you ought to sign up for. He links to an article here about the importance of speed, by James Somers.

Not only is this remedy cheerfully practical, it also presents us with a second gift — a way out of fear.

This is welcome for any of us writers that find themselves paralysed by the blank page.

Fear of failure, fear of not good enough, fear of ‘you’re no expert’, fear of ‘who do you think you are?’.

I am quietly certain that the impostor syndrome comes to us all in one guise or another. Like a thief in the night, it softly-softly steals our confidence, our work, our fierce mettle.

And then, diminished by the voices that say we can’t — we find they’re often right. The car stalls. The sentences sticks.

So — the sweet solution?

Do it fast.

Snatch back your writer’s confidence, snatch the 5 or 10 minute break — gather your ideas, and then sprint to snare them on screen or paper. Run quick, blood pumping, so the fear doesn’t have a chance to tangle you up in your own feet.

Or if it does, rather than grovel in front of it over a fourth cup of tea and a staring competition with the wall (it will always win), let the fear bite you.

Brush yourself off, continue on whatever it was that made your eyes sparkle, and set to doing.

Better yet, do it quickly.

Best of all? Do it fast.