Writing first drafts can be so hard. Sometimes the content just flows; it melts onto the page and you almost cry with joy. The other 98% of the time it’s more like doing your tax return: lots of weeping, thumb-sucking, and rocking in the fetal position.

It doesn’t have to be that way! Copyblogger recently shared their list of ten rules for writing first drafts. These rules can help you overcome writer’s block as well as the subsequent scarring when nothing but a blank page is staring back at you. Follow these rules and you will break through to the Land of Awesome First Drafts*.

10 Rules for Writing First Drafts

*The Land of Awesome First Drafts is not an actual physical land. I know, we all wish it were true.