It's better to have a messy draft than a blank page
On following my own advice
I was a writing teacher in higher ed for 13 years. I worked with writers from all different backgrounds and ages on writing from personal narratives to websites to dissertations. Over and over again I saw writers struggle with getting their thoughts written down to even get started on projects. Other times I recognized that their fear of sending me something that wasn’t perfect (or “good enough”) was getting in the way of them sending me anything.
I tried to be a teacher and mentor that was kind yet constructive with my guidance and feedback. I never planned to judge them harshly for their work and I often invited them to send in half-thoughts and messy drafts with comments or ideas that reflected wherever they were at that point. Because the truth was, I couldn’t help them move forward if they never sent me anything.
No matter how open and inviting I tried to be, there still was an internal pressure they felt, whether because of past experiences or personal drive, to produce something good.
So I often would try to remind them that a draft—any sort of draft—was better than a blank page. Getting something written down, even if it was through recording themselves and pasting the transcript on the document they were working on, would give them a starting place. Somewhere to work from, and ultimately get them closer to having something to send me.
Fast forward to today when I’m almost a year out from making my decision to leave my faculty position and venture on my own with my small consulting business. After letting myself rest and not pursue new writing projects for a bit, I finally feel a yearning to get writing again. But the issue is, I’m still figuring out what exactly I want to be writing about, who I should write for, and how it fits with the other things I’ve been building with my business.
So, today I decided to give myself some tough love and recognize that I was not following my own advice to just get something on the page even if it wasn’t perfect. I only had an hour til I picked up my kids from their half-day summer program, but I still sat down to write.
So here I am writing my first Substack post hoping it can lead me somewhere by consistently showing up for my writing and discovering new audiences and communities along the way. I seem to be simultaneously figuring out who I am today and what I’m building for the future while also reconnecting with younger Rachel who dabbled in blogging and writing online with LiveJournal, Wordpress, and other platforms over the years.
So, in true millennial Livejournal fashion, I leave you with this:
Hello, world. Welcome to my Substack.
