Jessica Lave

For better or worse, everything in your life has led you to where you are now. The same is true of writing. If I hadn't written dozens of truly terrible, often only half-finished, stories early on, I would not have gotten any better at writing. I might not have pushed myself to finish writing a story. I might not have ever gone back to edit a story. I might not have ever considered sharing, let alone publishing, a book I'd written. Every almost-perfect word, every awkward Yoda-speak sentence, every run-on sentence, every split infinitive, and every annoying, inversed-letters typo has propelled me to this point. It may not have been pretty to get where I am now in my writing journey, but it was necessary.

Once I cracked the code to first drafts - they're never going to be perfect, so crank it out and get on with it - and climbed over that absurdity I call ego - not everything I write is awesome, and even if it is, some people will still hate it - I started to find my rhythm, my style, and my voice. With every workshop, every constructive criticism, and every inevitable "hte" instead of "the", I learn a little bit more, get a little bit better, and push myself that much harder to come back with something people will find interesting or intense or heart-wrenching to read. Because that's the point of it all: connecting with the person on the other side of the page, the reader.