Google the phrase sloppy letter, and you will find a series of diatribes against the practice of careless correspondence. So it will probably surprise you to learn that I advise all my writing coach clients to write sloppy letters as part of the writing coach process. Not to their clients, of course, or even to their friends or relatives. I urge them to write me. “The sloppier, the better,” I tell them.
Why? Simple. Most writers are so concerned about the quality of their work that the quality of their work suffers. Ideas and creativity don’t flow in the face of self-criticism. And how do you discover your own voice if you’re constantly judging its flaws? All that scrutiny spawns is doubt and eventually immobilization. The Sloppy Letter to Linden diffuses those self-imposed constraints.
The rules are simple. You can’t worry about spelling, grammar, language, sentence structure, repetition, logic or anything else. You just write as fast and as long as you want, or until you’ve brought me up to speed about yourself and your project, including why it’s important to you and what you’re trying to say and/or accomplish, and any other background information that might be helpful.
Some people finish this brain dump in less than an hour. Others work on it for months. Whether they wind up with whole chunks of prose that drop right into their manuscripts, find the voice they’ve spent months or years struggling to cultivate, or simply relax, without exception they find the exercise liberating. After all, how can you sweat something that’s supposed to be sloppy?
During the writing coach process, we return to the sloppy letter whenever someone gets stuck. “You know what I think you might want to try?” I ask if brainstorming hasn’t helped clients break through the impasse. With enthusiasm that reflects their obvious sense of relief, they answer, “Sloppy Letter to Linden!”
Try it the next time you need to jumpstart—or restart—your own writing.
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