It doesn't have to be beautiful

Almost everyone who tells me they "can't draw" actually means something else: that what they make doesn't look the way they hoped. And that's where it stops. The pen goes away before the line ever arrived.

But beautiful was never the goal. A sketch isn't a finished product that gets a grade. It's a trace of ten minutes of attention — nothing more. Whether that trace looks "good" matters as little as what your handwriting looks like in your own diary.

I draw things every day that don't look right. A cup that leans, a hand that came out too big. I leave it. Those very crookednesses are the proof that I looked instead of copied.

Try this: draw with a pen today, so you can't erase. Every mistake stays, and you notice the world doesn't end. In fact — after a few days you start to like those "mistakes," because they're yours.

So let it be ugly. It doesn't have to be beautiful. It only has to be seen.