Power of Practice

In his recent newsletter, Matt Bell had insightful comments about the practice of writing:

• There is no failure, only practice.
• You become the writer who can write the book you want to write by writing the book you want to write.
• Make your writing practice a source of serious joy and serious play and you will have all the sustenance you need for the long road ahead.

Part of the practice of writing is rewriting. Matt Bell on the revision process:

• ​Revision is one of the ways you stay inside a book long enough to manifest yourself upon the page not once or twice but dozens or hundreds of times
• [The] "genius" books we all love really are better than what any one of us could write on any individual day, but that's not how they were written: they were written one small step at a time, just like our books will be. 
• As we fill our hours and days with the work of rewriting, our fictions become not written by any one self but by the spectrum of selves we're always becoming, even as the novel is becoming alongside us. 
• In the end, if all goes well, your final book will be smarter and more insightful and more poignant than you are on any given day. 

More gems from Matt Bell in his book on writing craft, Refuse to Be Done.

Is all practice equal?

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, says it takes 10,000 hours of intensive practice to achieve mastery of complex skills and materials, like playing the violin.  But that ‘s not the whole story.

The research of Anders Ericsson, a professor of psychology at Florida State University,  suggests someone could practice thousands of hours and still not be a master performer: the key is practicing with the guidance of an expert teacher (deliberate practice). 
“This distinction between deliberate practice aimed at a particular goal and generic practice is crucial, because not every type of practice leads to improved ability. You don’t get benefits from mechanical repetition, but by adjusting your execution over and over to get closer to your goal.”

Hence the importance of critique groups and writing classes/workshops from experts in the field.
Favorite instructors I’ve studied with: Mark Spencer (Writer’s Digest University), Richard Thomas (Storyville), Ken Liu (Gotham Writers), Jane Friedman (Jane Friedman Media), and the crew at Writing the Other.