Starting Your Essay
Take out your cluster of ideas and review it. Read the ideas that you circled and let them simmer in your mind for awhile. Next, begin to write.
Try and get it all out in one sitting. Don't worry about spelling, punctuation or if something doesn't sound right. After you've finished, walk away and let it simmer for at least one day. I suggest keeping articles at five-hundred words or less.
Okay, this is where I come clean. My name is David Rothacker and I am a compulsive editor. There, I said it. If I smoked, I'd ask you for a cigarette. I generally cruise through this process right up to "start your essay." I have such a problem NOT going right back and editing the sentence I just typed. When I am strong, can write, and let simmer overnight, I feel better about my stuff. Unfortunately, this isn't the case most of the time :-(
Here is another idea from my Joe-Try-To-Be-Perfect side.
Sometimes I post directly out of Typepad's Post Body window, without letting the piece simmer. I will go back, reread what I have written and make corrections. I usually do this within a day or two of the original post.
This concludes the Ideas for Ideas series. I'd like to leave you with one final thought. Never let grammar, punctuation or "what people might think of your writing," get in the way of communicating your thoughts with readers. If you have the impulse to say something, say it! We're all better off for it if you do!
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