Welcome to the Daily Quote, the podcast designed to kickstart your day in a positive way. I'm your host, Andrew McGivern, and this episode is brought to you by the Great News podcast. Because great news should be heard, and the link is right here in the show notes.
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Today’s quote is:
“Write drunk. Edit sober.”
Now, you may have heard this attributed to Ernest Hemingway. But there’s a problem: Hemingway almost certainly never said it. There’s no reliable evidence connecting him to the phrase. The earliest known version comes from Peter De Vries’s 1964 novel Reuben, Reuben, where a character talks about writing drunk and revising sober.
So let’s forget the alcohol for a moment and focus on the wisdom behind the saying.
He wasn't telling you to drink. He was telling you to separate the two jobs. Creating and editing are different muscles, and when you try to use both at once, you strangle the work before it has a chance to breathe.
Creating and editing require different mindsets.
When you’re creating, you want freedom. You want ideas to flow without immediately asking whether they're good enough, clever enough, practical enough or grammatically perfect.
But when you edit, you need judgment. You need to question things. Cut what doesn't work. Fix what's unclear. Make the good ideas better.
The problem comes when we try to do both at the same time.
You write a sentence and immediately criticize it.
You have an idea and immediately find reasons it won't work.
You start creating and your inner editor jumps in before you've got momentum.
And that can strangle the work before it has a chance to breathe.
Whether you're writing a podcast script, recording an episode, developing a business idea, painting a picture, or simply trying to solve a problem, there's value in giving yourself permission to create badly before you try to create brilliantly.
Get the ideas out first.
Then come back with a critical eye.
In other words: don't judge the first draft while you're still creating it.
Your first job is to generate.
Your second job is to refine.
So, if you've been stuck on something lately, try separating those two jobs.
Give yourself permission to make a big mess.
You can always clean it up later.
This podcast was recorded in my secret underground layer. Some episodes may include AI-generated background music. The outline or script for the show is AI Generated and human edited and reviewed. All spoken content is human-recorded by host and producer, Andrew McGivern…that’s me!
That’s going to do it for today. I’m Andrew McGivern signing off for now, but I’ll be back… tomorrow! Same pod time, same pod station with another Daily Quote.
