This podcast episode is from the Shelf Life article To Do Something Well, which originally published on September 17, 2020.
Catherine Forrest argues that the first step to doing something well is accepting that you will be terrible at it first. Using her own experience of working furiously at roller derby only to remain painfully mediocre, she explains that persevering at something you're bad at is invaluable practice for writing or any creative pursuit. She warns against comparing your raw first drafts to polished, professionally-edited books you read for pleasure, and urges you instead to stop worrying about "getting good" and focus only on doing the work consistently, improving just a tiny bit each day from your own previous effort.
