I'm not perfect.  And never will be.  And that is what makes me a whole human being.  There's always something of value in what we consider "bad" writing.  Sometimes it's as simple as seeing that after "bad" writing comes "good" writing.  "good" according to us, the writer.

Recently on You Tube there was a clip of a woman singing on the British version of the American TV show, American Idol.  Because of how she presented herself as well as how she dressed, her voice surprised not only the audience, but the judges as well.  And renegade Simon Cowell of American Idol was one of the judges.   The woman had no idea that her voice was as outstanding as others thought.  So, after all, who does decide what's "good."  Therefore, again, why not keep it all?  Perhaps the "bad" writing is not as "bad" as you think.  And, the "good" writing is not as "good" as you think.  But, it is true that all the writing is you, and is therefore entitled to exist.

One further point.  Looking back on old "bad" writing years later, I have often been surprised to discover gems.  Had the writing improved, or had I developed a new perspective?  The point is that by saving ALL writing you allow yourself the opportunity to harvest when the time is right.

Sometimes we do need to be externally prompted – reading a book on writing often does it for me.  Others I know get going simply because they have been given a writing assignment, whether as a professional,  in school, or for some other purpose.

So, I do NOT want to discredit the vaue of writing exercises.  Still there are so many possible exercises available that we can distract ourselves – and I've often seen it – into believing that without writing exercises we cannot write.

I will, in other posts, talk about writing exercises (for a starter, you may want to look at Natalie Goldberg's Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life) if you haven't already done so.

One of the excellent aspects of Natalie's Wild Mind is her identification of what she calls "The Rules of Writing Practice."  (p.1)  The major idea behind these rules is "It's better to figure out what you want to say in the actual act of writing."    She's quite clear in saying that "If you learn writing practice well it's a good foundation for all other writing." (p.5)

There are seven rules, the details of which can be found in Chapter 1 of Wild Mind:

"(1) Keep your hand moving.

(2) Lose control.

(3) Be specific.

(4) Don't think.

(5) Don't worry about punctuation, spelling, grammar.

(6) You are free to write the worst junk in America.

(7) Go for the jugular."

Natalie Goldberg is best known for Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within.  A good and important read if you haven't read it yet.  Still, Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life needs to be added to the "Natalie Goldberg set."

The dilemma is that depending on what you believe, you either will or will not write.  And, if writing is an important activity for you to engage in (according to you), and if you believe you do not have positive self esteem, writing will not happen anytime soon if you wait for positive self esteem to occur.   There is a common saying that you can't write well unless you write badly.   In this instance, keeping this saying in mind can help you take pen to paper, or your fingers to the computer.

One of the major purposes of my writing telegroup is to allow people who want to write and haven't for a long time or whohaven't done their own creative projects, to get themselves going in the context of a safe and supportive environment.  Often the participants will talk about not believing that their writing is good, or that their self esteem is really poor.

It is an extremely gratifying (I can't use too many superlatives) experience to see people grow into their true writing selves.  To hear their own writing voices.  And, to see that whether they believed they had poor self esteem, or whether they believed their writing was bad, eventually all developed as writers that they believed had both positive self esteem and good writing.

For information on how to overcome writer's block, see Overcome Writer's Block Easily.