OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
Many people think their writing is not good enough to show anyone, or not good enough to be published.
Many people are not even able to say “I am a writer. I am an author. I am creative.” [Go on – try saying those words out loud!]
But here is a brilliant true story that applies to writing, as well as any other human endeavour.
The Wright Brothers were told that humans could not fly. It was impossible. But their reality was different. They saw beyond other people's meagre dreams and believed that humans could fly.
But they didn't build their first plane and drive it off a cliff believing it would fly immediately. They found a good training ground with small hills and soft landings because they knew there would be many failures. They spent several years developing, trialling, practicing and failing – over and over again.
On December 17, 1903, the Wright Brothers achieved the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight. That's the line we all know, but think of the years of hard work, criticism and unbelief they faced before that day. They persisted and they achieved.
What can writers learn from this?
- Expand your present reality. You will get what you focus on. You will achieve what you aim at. If you keep thinking “I can't write”, then guess what, you can't! Right now, publishing in undergoing fundamental changes and the opportunities for authors are wide open to try new things. Expand your reality of what you think writing and publishing are. The old ways pass, and people who see further than the present reality will be best placed to take advantage of the future.
- Stop listening to the nay-sayers. Writing and literature are particularly snobby. Let's face it, it can be a bitterly critical environment to be in. The tall poppies are cut down by the literary critics, even though they achieve great things. Perhaps you need to stop going to the writers group that destroys your confidence weekly? Perhaps you shouldn't read your paranormal romance novel to your husband who likes war stories? Perhaps you should write as you are, not like the latest Booker Prize winner? What you have to say is valuable. Say it proudly. There is a world of readers out there.
- Practice Failing. You cannot expect to write a masterpiece as your first book. Your first sentence will not emerge pristine and immaculate. You need to write…a lot. Practice writing, practice failing. Play around. Expect to crash and burn, then get up and try something new. There may be a few bumps and scrapes along the way, but that is how we learn.
- Outstanding achievement takes time. Malcolm Gladwell's latest book “Outliers” discusses human mastery in terms of a magic number. It takes approximately 5000 hours to achieve mastery in any sphere, be it music, computing, writing or engineering. It all takes time and practice.
So, take heart from the Wright Brothers and begin failing today. The faster you fail, the faster you will get to your goal!
View Comments (1)
We under-represent the amount of practice it takes to achieve mastery, especially when we're trying to teach mature adults. In the workplace, due to so-called cost control, most training ends up becoming a short event, which I've often called "spray and pray", in which a so-called expert spews forth and recipients are passive listeners. We pray that some of what is taught sticks. That is definitely NOT the way to achieve mastery whatsoever, even though it's the model that has been used in many collegiate environments. The real work takes place outside the classroom, if at all, when the individual applies the knowledge and practices those skills that were presented.
I work in the field of workforce education and training, and I don't know where Gladwell got his 5,000 hour number. According to Dan Coyle, in his terrific book entitled The Talent Code, the number of hours it takes to master something is 10,000.
Whatever the number, however, it's clear that mastery involves very specific types of deep learning, in which feedback and constant, small corrections are key to enhanced performance over numerous repetitions. You know what the old saw about how someone gets to Carnegie Hall... Turns out it's true for pretty much anything you want to be good at, including writing.