The first rule in writing is to just write.

That is why I had to kick AI off my Word program. It was editing me as I wrote, even though I was not yet clear about my direction, much less where to place a comma or accept a better word choice.

Editing in real time can be dangerous. You might not convey your truth. That’s why journals are so helpful. They are not for others’ consumption, and you get to be messy and cranky and use all the words that come to mind.

Consider anything you write as your first draft.

Consider anything you’re about to say as your first draft.

It’s a late-in-life trick for me, but I work every day to think before I speak. I missed an opportunity to do so just recently, and yet I was able to forgive myself and acknowledge that at least I caught myself in time to apologize. If you know me, that was big—not the apology, the catching myself.

Eckhart Tolle describes this as a lifelong practice. First, you must recognize what you do or what you’ve done and how you are received. Then, you start to hear yourself as you’re doing it. Next, you stop yourself before you say it. This is when you go from reacting to responding. But because you are human, you will slip up, and then you must start again. That’s the practice part.

In this world of artificial intelligence/editing software ever at the ready, I challenge you first to write and think in all kinds of messy terms until you get it just right.

You are the only person who knows what you really want to convey. Convey that, not all the other messy stuff.

Mary