Words: 689
Time to read: 4 minutes
The biggest challenge of writing is not the writing, it’s the discipline of writing. Recently I saw a chart of some 30 famous authors and their daily writing habits. I think the biggest takeaway for me was not so much the writing but the discipline. One author stated that a true professional has to write.
I’m by no means a professional. That writing is my hobby, albeit useful, is very clear in my mind. There’s always a lot to do. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of the busyness of life. It’s easier to default to the busy work that can occupy so much of our time rather than do what’s hard and think. Distill those thoughts. On a daily basis. Probably 90% or more of what you write is junk. Perhaps rifling through the junk and racking your collective acumen, regardless of how low it may be, you can dig out a gem every now and then.
For me, my biggest challenge is the daily habit. While I have it marked down to do every day often I neglect it for other ‘priorities’ which are not priorities at all. It’s simply a means to evade the difficult work of thinking and the great possibility that what I’ve written isn’t even worth the time I’ve taken to write it. I journal. That’s a form of writing, certainly; often, however, it’s a mere processing of what’s going on in my life. I would encourage you to do so as well. But do it with pen and paper. There’s something special about the analogous habit of pen and paper clarifying the often dizzying speed of life and the warping effects that it can have on our hearts and souls. For me, journalling is a simple act of staying sane. I see writing as something altogether different.
Sure you’re attempting to sort things out, sometimes even through the power of story of symbolism. You’re trying to get to the bottom of what you’d like to say, sometimes through the careful examination of the life of another in a more biographical form. At its core, however, published writing is simply you taking your thoughts and testing them against others. I’m not published (yet) but there’s always a risk that I am very cognizant of: no one agrees with—or far worse for an author—no one reads what I write.
Sometimes I like to think of writing like golf. No matter how good your last stroke may have been you’re always looking to improve your game. Admittedly, I am a terrible golfer but I admire those that are working towards mastering it. And that’s just the thing—even the greatest golfers are working to master the game. It’s always a game against one’s self. In a highly competitive world what a great way to compete! Against yourself. You’re going to get it wrong. It’s going to be rough most likely for a long time. That’s the nature of the game. The key then is to always be competing against yourself and improving your craft. Too often the bar is set far too high. The bar that you set. So lower your bar, your threshold for minimum success. This is not to say that you don’t strive for excellence. Certainly. Always. But give yourself a break from expecting a best-seller, a viral blog, or wide acclaim. That’s quite a par to set for yourself and most likely comes at a substantial cost that you can’t afford.
You just have to surpass who you were yesterday. Even if by only 1%. And even if today you fail to do so you must just get back to being disciplined. Doing what you need to do to put yourself in a better place for tomorrow. Even if today’s work is terrible. Put in the work. You won’t have a base for tomorrow if you are constantly excusing yourself today. Hammer out 1,000 words. Or even 500. Just do it on a daily basis. You’d be surprised how far you could come in a year if you’d just do your work—the difficult work—every day.