Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

Good morning.

This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast Podcast.

Today's tip is to write fast and edit slow.

When you're working on a project that requires making something new, aim to create first without questioning yourself.

Then, once you've gotten your ideas down, you can be more disciplined about turning this something into something better.

This council to write fast and edit slow will be familiar to writers who are often encouraged to treat writing and editing as separate processes.

They require different kinds of thinking. Just as we can't really multitask by checking

email while running a conference call,

or better off writing and editing successively,

rather than oscillating between them in one sitting.

In her classic book, Bird by Bird, some instructions on writing and life.

Author Anne Lamotte urges would-be writers to pen Crummy first drafts.

Well, crummy isn't the word she uses but it's what we'll use for

this family-friendly show. A not very good first draft paves the way she says for

good second drafts and terrific third drafts.

Lamotte discourages perfectionism which she writes means that you try desperately

not to leave so much mess to clean up.

But avoiding mess may not be advisable, according to Lamotte.

Clutter is wonderfully fertile ground.

Tightiness, she writes, suggests something is as good as it's going to get.

...