The Key to a Successful Writing Career? Practice

AKA Will You Put in 10,000 Hours?

In the world of writing, there are few absolutes. Successful authors sit and type, or take pen to paper, or dictate into an audio recorder and then have their words transcribed. Different people, different styles, different methods.

But they all put in the hours to do the work.

When Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers book came out in 2008, there was suddenly a definitive number of hours one had to work to be a success: 10,000 hours.

If you want the stellar level of success 10,000 hours of writing practice brings in one year, you are out of luck. No one has 27 hrs a day to do anything.

If you didn’t have a day job, you could do it in 4 years, writing 6 hours a day.

On average, the stats are more along the lines of practicing 3 hours a day for 10 years.

So much for being “an overnight success”.

What you can be is dedicated, persistent, determined.

What you can do is write every day, even if it’s only for fifteen minutes or half an hour. That practice adds up, bit by bit, in your thoughts and in your feelings.

Success depends on what you want to accomplish with your writing. If it’s journaling a family scrapbook, you’ll get it done in less than 10,000 hours. Same thing for writing a short story or even a novel; definitely less than 10,000 hours.

But how much better will your fifth short story or your third novel be because you have put in the hours to write those other short stories and that second novel?

Jack O’Neil: I practice.
- Stargate SG-1, “Emancipation”, 1.3

Jan 21, 2010

Tags: 10000 hours  |  practice

Categories: writing