On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

In her latest release, 1000 Words: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round, novelist Jami Attenberg, shares her advice and that of over 50 other writers.

Here’s an inspiring essay from Celeste Ng:

I am a perfectionist by nature so the drafting stage is hard for me. It is really hard to just move forward and put something down on paper because part of my brain is always screaming, “But it’s not quite right! Erase it! Erase it NOW!

But I’ve also learned that it is very rare to get something completely right on the first try—and it’s approximately nine million times easier to revise something from “not great” into “actually kind of decent.” So for me, the key is getting something down, and even when it’s imperfect—which is always—it usually points me in the direction I need to dig in.

Over the years, I’ve collected a bunch of analogies for the writing process that helps me override that type-A instinct in my brain, at least temporarily. In Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott talks about the first draft being the “down draft” (just get it down), and the second draft being the “up draft” (when you fix it up).

And then there’s a sign I have over my writing desk which I glance up at as needed. It just says ‘WORRY ABOUT THAT LATER.”