I sometimes think it is because they are so bad at expressing themselves verbally that writers take to pen and paper in the first place.
-Gore Vidal
To write a book that transforms a life, you must hone whatever writing talent God gave you into the mighty skills required to craft such a book.
Truth is, if you can’t think well, you can’t write well.
The good news is that honing your writing skills is easy.
- Schedule your writing sessions.
- Keep your writing appointments (show up at the appointed hour).
- Write for the time allotted.
The more you practice your writing skills, the better you become at them.
Ray Bradbury’s great advice applies.
“The best hygiene for beginning writers or intermediate writers is to write a hell of a lot of short stories. If you can write one short story a week—it doesn’t matter what the quality is to start, but at least you’re practicing, and at the end of the year you have 52 short stories, and I defy you to write 52 bad ones. Can’t be done.”
Set yourself this goal: Write one new story every week. This forces you to write each day, which forces you to hone your craft a little every day.
When you look back at today’s writing a year from now, you’ll wonder how it was possible for you to write so poorly, and that will be true no matter how accomplished you become.
I’ve yet to publish anything – blog post, newspaper or magazine article or book – that I didn’t believe I could do better within 10 minutes.
Sometimes, 10 seconds.
This is as it should be. We should never believe “we’ve arrived”.
We will never master our craft, and that’s a wonderful thing.
Our joy is in the journey, not our arrival.
