What Do Great Writers Know That You Don’t

Writing can be fun and yet challenging. It is fun when you put hands on the page and the words come out freely. It is challenging when you stare at your assignment and realize you are not as smart as you think.

This is where the confusion sets in. You frown, it is supposed to be fun all of the time.

If you think this way, it means you aren’t one of the sleek writers yet. You are going to come to a certain understanding before you are among those who are classified as professionals.

However, it is better if you understand quickly what professionals have come to terms with. It will save you a lot of agony when you have a deadline and the words aren’t coming.

1. Action Is Greater Than Clarity

You want to feel like a writer — have a magic trick in your sleeve that when you roll it on the page, the words will appear and beat every book on the bestsellers list. Or you think you will write so convincingly well your professors will assume you deserve to be awarded a higher degree than you are planning to get.

No, it doesn’t work that way.

Action is greater than thought. If you think you are a writer, start acting like one. Wake up and write. Read. Study. That’s what sleek writers do. They have been doing it for years and it seems like a habit. But it starts with the small actions that align with what they want to become.

Don’t wait for magical inspiration either. You are going to submit your assignment or writing project at a specific date. See it as a job and get to work.

2. To Arrive At Your Dream Destination, You Have To Follow A Route (Best Laid Down By Someone Who Has Walked The Path).

You have sleek writers around you. They have gotten where they are by working hard at improving their skills. Follow their process. If there are too many processes from different sleek writers, find the one that appeals to you and follow it. There are three things that all writers do to become great. They write a lot. They read a lot more. They understand (to a certain extent) the details about the crafts.

You can’t skip any of the three and think you will get to that height you have dreamed about.

3. Practicing Is Not About Writing Daily. But Learning About Specific Aspects Of Craft And Challenging Yourself

Remember the thing that makes a great piece of work. Write them down — great introduction, smooth transitions, great paragraphs (with a topic sentence at the beginning), concise sentences, word choice. Have you targeted one of these things specifically?

Writing daily is good, but sleek writers would rather learn about what makes good writing and practice deliberately. It goes in two ways, you recognize how greater people have done it in their work (reading) and try to do it in your work (writing).

4. Dreams Come True By Working Every Single Day

Okay, you have read that you should be more focused on what you are learning every day. But you must do it every day. Success will happen along the line. It won’t happen when you stop and two weeks later you see competition and opt-in for it.

If you keep doing your work, you will become like those sleek writers you know and then you will be ready when the opportunity comes.

5. Failure Is Part Of The Process

Don’t ask sleek writers alone. Ask the greatest entrepreneurs, the most influential persons, the world leaders… You will realize that failure has been an essential part of the process.

It is a warning that you have to sit up and put more practice. It is a reminder that it is not over until it clicks and until you get it.

It is J. K. Rowling that says “It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.”

Maya Angelou said it differently:

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”

Through failure, you will discover a manuscript that will not work so that you can write one that will work. You will find magazines that don’t like your genre and style. You are being pointed to where work is needed to be done. Listen to it. Sleek Writers have mastered this and overcome. You have to. It is part of the process.