Practice Makes Perfect (Or Sometimes, Just Better)

By: Tia Love

An old adage, those words still ring true today, and they apply to almost anything we do. If you want to excel, you have to consistently practice and build upon your skill level. Challenge yourself. Push yourself. Discover your limits and then fly past them.

A writer that doesn’t write is essentially just a person with a lot to say.

I am poking fun at myself here. I have been calling myself a writer for years, and I believe in my heart of hearts that I am a writer. However, when I manage to go months at a time without producing anything, I can’t help but to question the validity of that title. My mind is weighed down with ideas for titillating story lines, vibrant characters, snappy and informational articles, and so much more that pertains to the world of writing. Somehow, life, my number one inspiration, has turned from an asset to a liability, and now stands in the way of my passion.

Its not so much a creative/writing block; the ideas are there. Its more about me refusing to make the time to sit down and do the work. Reading “Mastery” by Robert Greene, I have learned that to master any skill or trade you have to put in 10,000 hours of work/training in that profession. When it comes to writing, that means sitting down in front of your computer or your notebook and putting it all on paper. Day in and day out. You won’t like everything that flows onto the page, but we’ve already talked about that. You won’t get better and to a point where you do make peace with what you write, until you’ve put in the type of hours that produce enviable results.

You can call yourself a writer all day, but as the saying goes: the proof is in the pudding. What are you producing? A better question is how can you produce anything if your aren’t crafting out time in your schedule to train your mind as a writer? Make ample time for your writing, enough time to gauge what you already know and build on it. The more time you put into it, the better it will get. I promise. 10,000 hours from now, the difference between the writer you were and the writer you’ll be will be so great, you won’t even recognize the words on the page as something you could have written.

Begin. And then master.