Bethany Henry: Writing & Wellness

To dare to be average is to intentionally let go of trying to be perfect. Perfectionism is defined as striving for and demanding perfectionism, which normally seems like a good thing. Right? Yet it turns out, some of our beliefs about perfect may not be quite… true. Consider this quote by Dr. David D. Burns, a well known and respected cognitive behavioral therapist and author of Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy: “‘Perfectionism” is man’s ultimate illusion. It simply doesn’t exist in the universe. There is no perfection. It’s really the world’s greatest con game; it promises riches and delivers misery… Everything can be improved if you look at it closely and critically enough.” Basically he’s arguing that perfect is a myth. It doesn’t exist. So here’s the thing: I like to aim for perfection. After all, won’t striving to be perfect drive me to do my best work? Isn’t this a standard I should hold myself to? Isn’t this what people expect from me? Is it possible that letting go of perfect...

Often a reader decides whether or not to read a book based on the first page- sometimes based on just the first paragraph or even just the first few words. While we don’t want to paralyze ourselves with pressure over having a PERFECT first sentence to the point that we neglect the rest of our manuscript … we also want to recognize that it is kind of important to get the beginning of our story as close to perfect as possible. So how do we write a great start for our story? There are a few elements we want to make sure are included in our story’s beginning- as well as a few red flags to avoid. All of writing is subjective of course and what works for some may not work for others, but hopefully this will get us thinking and help us create strong beginnings to our stories. How To Write A Great Start For Your Story Remember: It May Take Time. The first lines we draft aren’t cemented in stone- we can try several different beginnings to see what works. Often won’t get a clear idea of how we w...