Getting the first version of your writing out of your head and onto the page is difficult.

Writing the first draft of anything is the most difficult part, and in my experience it’s because our expectations of the first draft are too high; we want the first draft to be ‘good’.

The way to do a piece of writing is three or four times over, never once. For me, the hardest part comes first, getting something—anything—out in front of me.

John McPhee (2017). Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process.

Writing gets easier when you recognise that the first draft doesn’t need to be anything other than the first of several drafts. In fact, aim for a shitty first draft. Make that your actual goal.

By lowering your expectations of what the first draft needs to be, you remove a barrier to more regular writing. For me, the first part of writing regularly is to put aside any notion that the writing will be good.

My only goal when writing a first draft of anything is simply to put words on the page.