In primary school, we are handed a pencil and taught how to write. Included in that process is learning to correct our mistakes. That’s when we learn about the other end of the pencil: the eraser.
If you were anything like my now 5-year-old son, you find unnecessary reasons to erase. After a homework session, my dining room table is covered in eraser shavings and incomplete homework. Yes, I shake my head. But he is learning and so am I.
And as authorpreneurs we are learning, too. But, I want you to unlearn a pesky, little habit. Unlearn erasing also known as deleting also known as paper crumpling and wastebasket dumping. Yup, I said it. Stop it. Stop deleting.
I can feel that crinkle in some of your foreheads getting tighter and twitchier. Relax. There is magic in your supposed mistakes.
Mistakes, errors, flaws … Oh yay!
The day I stopped deleting is the day my authorpreneur wings soared. First, let’s clarify. I am not talking about the minor deleting, such as correcting a misspelled word or rewriting a sentence already in process. Nope. That is for another blog. My aim is for you to stop deleting entire chunks of your writing because you feel it is:
“Garbage!” “Rubbish!” “Crap!” “Stupid!” “Dumb!” “Pointless!” “Horrible!” “Unworthy!”
That’s the kind of deleting I am talking about. To delete this habit of deleting (ha-ha), we must change our thinking.
Hold on to your crap
You, authorpreneur, are quite amazing. Seriously, the creativity that flows from your soul is ingenious. You are marked with uniqueness, resourcefulness, and cleverness. Therefore, your words are also.
What you think is “crap” will still make great fertilizer. The crap you want to delete could be the foundation for a separate chapter, a blog post, a newsletter topic, a live webinar discussion, or the next book. But only if you fight that pesky urge to hit the delete key.
Instead, select your “crap”, and copy and paste it into a separate document file. You can even name the file Crappy Ideas for Later. From time to time, check on that file. Scan through your crap and see if you have fertilizer for your next book.