I'm reading "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott. It's wonderful for many reasons, but the one that's really giving me manic happy fits is her recommendation to write a "shitty first draft."

It's the title of an early chapter, actually, and those three words fall into the "words I want to tattoo somewhere" category along with Stephen King's simple and oft forgotten advice that "writers write."

Lamott's point is it is necessary for writers (and particularly those like me who are new to this whole "finishing a manuscript" business) to give themselves the room to be indulgent, overdramatic and even (gasp) cliché. She recommends a purging of ideas and to not spiral into a writers comma of ineptitude at your lack of WIP perfection.

Give yourself permission to write something shitty. It may be five pages into the useless crap that a real kernel of lovely can be discovered.

So as I finally revisit my manuscript this week ("hello, lover"), I'm going to put the least amount of pressure on myself as possible - may require some wine - and just allow myself to go.

I'll get the scooper out after I've typed THE END and not berate myself for anything less than my preconceived ungrounded expectations.