Tape Over Your Backspace Key

And permit yourself to write without judgement

I’ve found that an over-the-top, symbolic gesture before writing can lead to a productive and immersive session.

Here’s one recommendation:

1. Get a bit of tape.

2. Tape over your backspace key.

3. Set a timer, open a document, and just move forward. No looking back. No editing. Only forward motion.

One of the challenges I face working with students is getting them to embrace mess-making.

We have been acculturated to discern and judge works-in-progress rather than completed drafts. This qualitative judgment, this discernment, is obviously a useful impulse if you’re editing. But what if you’re not editing yet? What if you’re just generating?

You need to send a signal to your brain that this activity is different. It requires the suspension of judgment.

That’s why you need the symbolic gesture – the tape – to tell your brain: this isn’t just ordinary writing. This is writing where I only move forward and I do not worry about the quality, validity of what’s on the page.

Then, when it’s time to edit, you can remove the tape and signal to your brain that the time has come to move into discernment.

Written by Raghav Rao

Illustration by Sophie Lucido Johnson

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Office of Modern Composition is a Chicago-based writing studio that both makes compositions and fosters composers. We offer one-on-one coaching for writers and also take on commissions for things you need to have written. We also offer free events like our in-person and online co-writes.