Get Messy!

This year, my graduation post goes out especially to my daughter.

Congratulations, Grace! 

Here are a few things to remember as you head out into this great big beautiful and marvelously messy world...

Endings can be orderly.

Road races have those clearly marked finish lines, and runners cross them fist-pumping.

Students march up row by row alphabetically to receive their diplomas.

Even death can be tidy — some folks simply slip out quietly in their sleep.

Beginnings are another matter.

Beginnings are never nice and neat.

Every runner’s first steps were nothing but a series of face-plants and pratfalls.

All of this week’s graduates started in kindergarten chaos.

Births — my goodness!

They are MESSY and LOUD!

Nobody here on the planet just tiptoed in without SOMEBODY noticing.

So, maybe you've just ended…

some schooling

or an old job.

And now you’re taking your first steps…

in a new location

or a new career.

Maybe you’re simply starting a project

or a novel.

Whatever beginning you are just beginning…

here’s a friendly reminder just for you —

Every GREAT start is SLOPPY,

MESSY,

And LOUD!

It can even be CONFUSING and CHAOTIC

or full of FACE-PLANTS and PRATFALLS.

And isn't that wonderful to know?

So haul out the finger paints, mud, and whole wheat flour.

Make wild clumsy leaps and fall without grace (even if your name happens to be Grace).

Really egg it on —

The messier the better!

And it will be the start of something GREAT —

Guaranteed!

PROMPT: Make the messiest, most awful, first draft imaginable. I mean seriously. Make it so bad that your EYES would blush from shame if they ever saw it published.

Now THAT’S a great beginning!

And you can bet your bottom dollar that ALL GREAT books began exactly this way.