Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, suggests that practice is more meaningful than underlying talent. He theorizes that it takes about 10,000 hours of doing something—deliberately, not casually—to become good at it. Other thinkers have since attacked that idea, but in general outline it certainly makes sense. The more time I spend playing a game or baking pies, the more opportunity I have to find out for myself what is the best way to do it.
When it comes to writing, “deliberately” is a key word. Just typing away in a journal for ten thousand hours may have many internal benefits and will probably improve my typing skills, but I would just spend ten thousand hours reinforcing the way I already write. It’s important to have useful input as I go along.
If I drown my prose in adverbs for ten thousand hours, my writing gains nothing. If I read what Strunk and White have to say about the skillful use of adverbs and then spend hours writing prose that makes skillful use of adverbs, that’s progress.
If I use “that” when I should have used”which,” ten thousand times, I’m just reinforcing my ignorance. If I look up how to use them and practice getting it right, then I’m learning.
The book universe is teeming with books about writing, and they are a good source of helpful input.
- A long-time favorite with many writers is Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style
- Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
- Janet Evanovich’s How I Write
- Put the Cat in the Oven Before You Describe the Kitchen by Jake Vander Ark
- Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Brown and Dave King
- The First 50 Pages by Jeff Gerke
There are many more, of course.
The internet has a great deal of information about writing. Grammar blogs, creative writing blogs, and online writing magazines will all provide new input to improve one’s writing.
Reading the kind of books you want to write will give you an intuitive feel for the shape and style that is expected in that sort of book. Reading in general expands your vocabulary and lets you experience of various styles and voices.
Input from other people can improve your skills as well. A critique group, such as critiquecircle.com, beta readers, and editors can all provide useful feedback.
It was writing short stories for contests that expanded my interest enough to write a nonfiction book about writing fiction. As my stories were critiqued, people mentioned various elements of writing I was unfamiliar with. I looked them up when I got home, and I learned.
The Florida Writers Association offers several writing opportunities. Every issue of the magazine prints members’ short stories in the Paragraphs section. The annual short story Collection competition is another opportunity. The Royal Palm Literary Awards competition provides feedback on a set group of elements to every entry.
The NYCMidnight contests give feedback on every entry also. To find contests, search for “contests” or “free contests” and the current year.
So yes, practice, practice, practice, but practice new and better techniques and sharper skills.
Therese Lombardo
Excellent points – great share! [there, now I’ve contributed four words to my total word count! :-)]
Ken Roach
Enough to fire up a hard to stay focused novice
Virginia Gawthorpe
Love the advice! I have Janet Evanovich’s book, “How I Write,” but I can always use more help!
Sam Staley
Good article, but I think the 10,000 hours point made by Gladwell, while a nice hook, is miscast and taken somewhat out of context. First, Gladwell didn’t theorize the 10,000 hours. The figure of 10,000 is best thought of as a heuristic or a rule of thumb, and came from research in psychology. His point was the “outliers” just don’t appear out of nowhere–they have to work hard and deliberately at what they do over a prolonged period of time. Second, the 10,000 hours referred to deliberate practice focused on improving skill and proficiency. This is implicit in much of what this blog article emphasizes (accurately and importantly in my view). Another way of looking at this is if you follow the advice of this article and work on the *craft* of writing for five years, using the advice and resources you identify in this article. someone can master the craft of writing. I would also point out, however, that craftsmanship alone doesn’t necessarily create an “outlier”; deliberate and intentional improvement raises the level of skill and proficiency. Finally, I believe the recent research is best understood as recognizing that the value of deliberate practice varies substantially by field and focus of inquiry. It should never be thought of as a fast and hard rule, and it will also very by individuals (both in terms of baselines n the field and talents). So, I think much of what Gladwell was trying to communicate is in line with what this article says. I couldn’t agree more with the advice provided here and I practice it in my own writing. Thank you for writing this!