In my 10,000 hour long task of learning to write I find myself struggling with the craft. And in that struggle, accept, I think, that because I struggle I’m getting better.
Last summer I wrote a novel. 1000-3000 words a day for 70 days. POW! Done. Of course what followed was dozens of hours of editing and rewrites. But the original process was fantastic. Really — I had a great time writing it. I was in the groove and enjoying the story as in unfolded.
Unfortunately, and it’s no surprise, the writing sucked. The story turned out excellent: novel, sweeping, fresh, emotional, moving. But the writing lacked the 10,000 hours of mastery that I’m now attempting to rectify.
And what I find is that the verve and energy I had while writing that book, now that I’m focusing on craft (and its myriad wrinkly impacts on the practice) the process has slowed to a desert-crawl-in-the-sun pace.
But, that’s okay I tell myself. I WANT to learn the craft. So, for now, I’m accepting that the momentum of writing will eventually catch up once I learn more of the ropes. I’m hoping this at least. Because for now, the story gets clogged up and hard to decipher when the writing itself unfolds so slowly (good, but slow).
Anonymole - apocryphal agitators 