Dealing with a Writer’s Unrealistic Expectations
It takes time to be good. Nothing earth-shattering about that concept. To be good at something requires years of careful study and diligent practice.
Every professional dancer, musician, athlete, and artist started at a young age and dedicated a significant portion of their life to becoming excellent.
We all understand that level of commitment.
However, many writers think they can reach a high level of performance in their first novel.
They start well.
“I have been writing since I was a kid. It is something I am naturally good at.”
“I have always gotten good grades in English and in Writing.”
“People really like what I write and encourage me to be a writer.”
“Writing is the only thing I genuinely enjoy doing. It is a career that does not feel like work.”
Great. These are all wonderful. And are signs you are, indeed, on the right career path.
It is a great place to begin. Let me repeat that. It is a great place to BEGIN.
Believing in your natural talent for writing is merely the first step toward becoming a writer.
All professional musicians learned as children they had an innate ability to recognize tone, remember a melody, sing in harmony, catch on to complex rhythms, and duplicate what they heard on an instrument. That was the BEGINNING. Discovering those gifts led them down the path toward becoming a musician.
All professional athletes learned they had special physical abilities on the playground. All professional artists began drawing as soon as they could hold a crayon.
Starting with the discovery of their natural ability, they invested years in training, studying, and practicing. Their instructors, coaches, mentors, and critics provided daily instruction and critiques. They made great personal sacrifices to follow their talent. They were single-minded in their quest to become the best they could be.
But there are writers out there who think natural talent is the end of the story, not the beginning.
“I was always good at writing in school. I am going to publish a book.”
This is as foolish and naïve as saying, “I was good at PE. I am going to try out for the Yankees.”
An important cognitive psychology concept to consider. It takes 1000 hours to become competent at something. If you want to be conversational in a language, plan on spending an average of 3 hours per day for about a year. Or… 1000 hours.
To be competent in a sport, or in a performance art, will also require 3 hours a day for about a year. And that is just to become competent.
To be highly skilled, double that.
Becoming fluent in a language, good enough at a sport to try out for a team, or strong enough in a performance art to audition will take at least 2 years.
And to become a Master—the best in the field—can take many years.
So, why in the world do so many writers think they are going to sell their first book? Something that took them an average of 140 hours to write.
To become good enough to make a living at this, you must have the same level of dedication and commitment. And it will take the same time.
It is going to take hours of reading books on the craft. Attending writers' conferences for hours. Hours of reading and critiquing other works. Hours of practicing new skills. And hours of processing constructive criticism. And yes, hours of writing.
You will write draft after draft. In the beginning, athletes stumble, strike out, get tackled, or miss the ball. In the beginning, most of the notes played by a musician are off-key. In the beginning, most of the dance steps are clumsy and awkward.
Why does a writer think their first work is publishable? And even if it is publishable, it is certainly not their best work.
Remember the joke about how to get to Carnegie Hall?
It is the same for writers.
How do you get published? PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.
Eric Myers
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