Need some life tips? Look no further than your friendly neighborhood writer. Here are some tidbits of wisdom I’ve learned about the art of living through the art of writing.
The most important thing is just to start.
Every single thing you attempt in life will require that you simply start: your day, your diet, your workout, your long ass commute. With writing, it is imperative that you throw perfection (hell, mediocrity) to the wind and just start by getting your thoughts out in a first draft. It’s messy & inarticulate & that’s the point. It’s the only way you’re going to get where you’re going.
Practice, practice, practice.
Author Malcolm Gladwell says that it takes roughly 10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field. Any athlete, musician, or chef (to pick a random three) would tell you that to do their craft well, it takes a significant amount of deliberate practice. Samesies goes for writing. To be a good writer, you must write a lot. Alotalotalotalot.
It’s all in the details.
There are a gazillion things we keep track of to ensure life runs smoothly. Bills, appointments, alarm clocks, deadlines, trash day. We pay attention to those details because they affect the flow and structure of our days. When writing, details are crucial. And I don’t just mean not misspelling words (unacceptable). I’m talking about apostrophes, commas, hyphens, and appropriately using quotation marks. Please don’t underestimate their importance. Please.
Words are important.
Yes, as a writer this is a no-brainer. But let’s look at average humans (that’s right, I’m putting writers in an above average category – holla!). Words matter. How many times have “I’m sorry” or “I love you” monumentally impacted a situation? So important are words that choosing the right ones can mean the difference between righting a wrong, popping the question & having her say yes, or winning an Oscar for Best Screenplay.
Get by with a little help from your friends.
We all rely on our friends. They don’t judge us when we need to vent, or get too drunk, or need to be bailed out of jail. If you’re a writer, use your friends. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve asked a friend to weigh in on a sentence, a word, or a lengthy ramble. More often than not, the feedback is spot-on and exactly the perspective I needed. Oh friends.
Just keep going.
Life requires that we keep moving. Move along, move out, move over, move up, move on. Growth will not occur if you’re stagnant. As a writer, I can question my same sentence 1,000 times. But eventually, it’s time to move to the next sentence and then the next and the next. Little by little one travels far.
“No” is a complete sentence.
An important thing to remember if you err on the side of people pleasing, or over-scheduling, or burning the candle at both ends. It’s okay to say “no” and it doesn’t need to have any follow-up. Writers are thrilled because they can meet their sentence quota with one word.
