People like Anne Lamott are asked for advice on how to write all the time. It’s what happens when you inspire people.

That’s why it was so refreshing when she asked about what was the worst writing advice she had ever heard:

To know what you’re doing in the very beginning of having started something new. No one knows what they’re doing…

She is identifying the difference between confidence and certainty. The former gives you what you need to plow through and find something great. The latter leaves no room for the magic that happens when you are blundering around in the dark.

Lamott’s preferred method is something that takes a little more courage than many new writers appreciate:

You find out what you’re doing by doing it, by writing a really, really terrible first draft…

Start out that way, and afterwards it’s all smooth seas.