How to get started when you don’t know where to start

Messy watercolor florals, wishing for a creative fairy godmother, and a revelation that took me 25 years

Aug 04, 2025

Welcome to Learning to Be A Beginner: An 8-Week Experiment in Overcoming Perfectionism! This is a recap of Week 2, where I pulled out a set of watercolors and gave myself permission to not be a professional artist right away. You can read more about why I decided to do this experiment here, and subscribe for free below to follow along for the ride :)

P.S. I’m already behind by a week—whoops. Moving into a new apartment sorta took over my life last week, but I am not letting one missed week stop me!

God, I wish I knew what to do right now.

As I sat down at a trendy Seattle coffee shop with a friend, I found myself staring at the watercolor palette I’d bought at a local art store, wishing desperately that I knew where the fuck to begin.

That a Disney-esque fairy godmother would just magically appear and tell me what I was supposed to do. Would show me how I should get started. How to fill the empty page in front of me, how to pick the right color, how to use the brush properly.

But deep down, I knew what I really wanted was to somehow be “good” at it as soon as I started. The very moment I picked up the brush, I expected myself to be the next goddamn Picasso! How wild (and unhealthy) is that?

One of the reasons I started this experiment in the first place was to challenge myself to sit with the fact that I wouldn’t always know what to do—and that it was up to me to do it anyway. To force myself through the discomfort of being a total beginner, to allow myself to push past the perfectionism that, previously, would have stopped me from going any further.

And you know what? I think I successfully managed to do that yesterday with my little watercolor palette, my sketchbook, and the $8 iced white mocha that ended up giving me terrible acid reflux!

Serious question: why aren't we taught that we can be objectively “bad” at something, and still enjoy it?

I’m not sure whose job it was to clue us in on that during our younger years, but clearly our standardized, elementary school curriculum skipped over that part. Or maybe I just ignored it, being the good little teacher’s pet, the perfectly-behaved eldest daughter, the toxically hardworking straight-A kid I was 😅

It has literally taken me 25 years to realize that I don’t have to be the “best,” or naturally “good” at something to find joy, pleasure, delight, or inspiration in it.

Which is why when I sat down with my friend yesterday, I almost immediately told her how overwhelmed I felt looking at the blank page that held infinite opportunities—the classic double-edged sword of I could do ANYTHING with this page! and oh my god. . . I could do ANYTHING with this page. The second side of which usuallyyyy leads to nothing being done with the page, lol.

So I thought to myself: how the fuck do you get started with something when you have absolutely no idea where to start?

And this is what worked well for me this time around!

1. Start with something familiar

Instead of trying to find something brand new to draw, I started with something I already knew how to do: sketch a flower that I’d recently learned from a YouTube tutorial. I picked up my pencil, drew a few circles to loosely define where I’d be drawing, and sketched the shape I was already confident putting down on the paper. Only from there did I allow myself to bring out the watercolors and make an attempt!

This is also what I do when I’m feeling nervous about going on a run, or bumping up my mileage as I train for my half marathon! Instead of trying a new running route, I stick to the place that I’m most comfortable with (aka where I know the mileage by heart, know exactly where to park, and know where the nearest bathrooms + water fountains are).

2. Do it with a friend

But not just any friend—a friend who will encourage you and give you the inspiration you need to do whatever you’re trying to do. NOT a friend who you’re worried might judge you, or make a comment that unintentionally makes you feel self-conscious/critical. I’m too sensitive to have friends like that around when I’m trying something new 😅

This is why my friend, Kiersten, and I met up yesterday! We’ve both been trying our hands at drawing recently, and know that we can trust each other to provide encouragement, inspiration, and motivation if we’re feeling stuck. She just so happens to have also started a Substack recently called Unwritten Postcards, which I highly recommend checking out if you love to travel :)

3. Get out of your regular space

I simply cannot allow myself the space or freedom to be bad at something if I’m at my own desk. I’m not sure why, but being in the place where I do my work, where something nearby always needs cleaning, or where my cats are running around, loudly playing with their jingle ball toy, does NOT always foster creative freedom for me. I’m often much more successful at zoning into a creative task + letting myself experiment when I’m at a coffee shop, a park, a library, or pretty much anywhere else!

4. Don’t look up a tutorial (or do)

There are two types of people in this world: one who finds tutorials very helpful for getting started, and one who will watch a tutorial, only to get incredibly frustrated when they can’t follow it perfectly. I alternate between both, depending on the day.

I think you’ve just gotta see for yourself whether it’s helpful or harmful to your creative process to look up instructions, or watch a YouTube video—does it inspire you and help you find a place to start, or does it leave you feeling frustrated when you can’t immediately replicate what they’re creating?

5. Don’t take any photos!!

I am TERRIBLE at this one. As a lifelong lover of photography (and serial entrepreneur), I tend to take photos of literally everything I do—and I’m trying to work on letting myself enjoy things without snapping pictures. But hey, I needed photos to include in this Substack post!!

I find that when I take a photo of something I’m doing, it immediately puts pressure on it to be “good enough” to show off—mostly on social media. Even if I never were to post it anywhere, it makes me feel like whatever I’m doing has to be aesthetic + camera-ready. . . and usually that’s just not the case when I’m trying something new.

However, I will occasionally send photos to my mom or grandparents to show them what I”m doing, so I’m okay with taking photos for that purpose! Orrr just keep them in your camera roll for you to look back on :)

All in all, I’m very happy with how my watercolor florals turned out yesterday—I learned that the paint did pick up some of the pen ink, and I didn’t leave nearly enough room on the page for the purple flowers I was trying to draw, but that’s okay! I’m reminding myself that the purpose of doing this was to sit down and enjoy myself with a friend, while trying something new creatively, and that I did :)

We’ll see what this week brings!

🩷 Danielle

P.S. I’ve had an inkling lately that I may want to get back into playing the piano, which I quit when I was in eighth grade. . . so I just reached out to three local piano teachers about lessons. Maybe this will become one of my experiments in the next few weeks?! 👀