There are those who can write so well, so effortlessly. At least, so it seems, seeing from the side, and it is so unfair. I’m constantly amazed by people who can articulate, in speech and in writing, without a stutter or even a pause. I have a lot of hms, uhs and ers when I speak, and writing is not so different. There are days when I feel I can go ahead and write, but more often than not, I end up being rather dismayed by the lack of results at the end of the day, deep in night.
Currently, I am trying to write up a series of articles about my recent month-long trip to the US and Canada, and even though I start with good intention and resolution, at the end of the day, there are a meagre few lines to show for my efforts. A lot of time is wasted on fluffing about, being distracted by one thing or another, such as a chocolate chip cookie or a cup of coffee.
The more I write, the more I doubt: whenever I look back and review what I have just written, I always find grammatical mistakes and stylistic infelicities. What’s more, my thought is plagued by the worry that more such faults remain. Hmm ... There are too many Is in this piece. I am always tempted to delete everything and start again. There is always a tingle of insuppressible urge me to wipe out everything I write, whatever platform, whether on paper, e-mail, forums and groups.
One way of dealing with this issue is to publish something, anything, rough and ready, rather than trying to bring it to any standard. Once out there, I will fix it later if necessary. To be honest, I don’t like doing this, but I feel it is one way to cope with procrastination, and fear of making mistakes.
Now, I should really go back to writing things up.