Hunter (S. Thompson) was working on the Kentucky Derby piece for Scanlan’s. And he could not meet the deadline. He tried and he couldn’t do it. And he said to Warren Hinkle, the editor, “Look, all I’ve got are notes.” And Warren said, “Well, send the notes.” And Hunter said, “I can’t, it’s gibberish.” And Warren said, “Well, send them anyway.” And Hunter said, “I can’t do that. They’re just crazy.” And Warren said, “That’s OK, just send them.” And he did. Hunter was mortified.
      - Sandra Dawn Thompson Tarlo (ex-wife)

Finally, I just began to tear the pages out of my notebooks. . .  When I first sent one down with the copy boy, I thought the phone was going to ring any minute with some torrent of abuse from whoever was editing the thing in the New York office. I just sort of sat back and watched TV.

I was waiting for the shit to hit the fan. . . but almost immediately the copy boy was back and wanted more. . . So I just began to tear the fucking things out. But I was full of grief and shame. I thought this was the end. It was the worst hole I had ever gotten into.

They printed it word for word even with the pauses, thoughts and jagged stuff like that. . . and I slunk back to Colorado and said, oh fuck, when it comes out I’m going to take a tremendous beating from a lot of people.

But exactly the opposite happened. . . I started getting calls and letters. People are calling it a tremendous breakthrough in journalism, a stroke of genius. And I thought, “What. . .?”

      -Hunter S. Thompson, in an interview with Ron Rosenbaum in High Times, September 1977. (Both quotes from Hunter:The Strange and Savage Life of Hunter S. Thompson by E. Jean Carroll)

. . .

There is something interesting about a skilled and practiced artist just letting go and not worrying about what others will think. Letting it flow. Of course, it doesn’t work unless first there has been practice and skill.