There is one piece of feedback that I keep getting about the site:
“I started to write something, but I wasn’t happy with it, so I scrapped it.”
Just remember…you’re not writing for a magazine here. Or a newspaper. There aren’t any literary talent scouts here that I know of. You are writing for you. This is practice. This is an excuse to write in a tiny corner of the internet so that you can be a better writer. The only expectations anyone has are that you write 501 words. (And you might be the only one expecting that.)
I subtitled my 501 words: These are the first 501 words that came to mind. That’s the only permission I need to write and publish. I don’t care what you think and I don’t care what I think. (That’s not true, by the way, but that’s what I keep telling myself.) I remind myself as I begin writing to bang out the first 501 words that come to mind. There is boundless freedom in that kind of permission.
So, may that be your permission as well. Just start writing, and when you get to 501 words or so, press publish. ‘Tis better to have written awfully than never to have written at all.
