Do The Thing

It's the only way to get better at the thing

I perpetually forget then remember that in order to get better at something, I really just need to do it. A lot. Badly for a while. And then slowly my understanding, skill, competence and ability builds. There is a need for self-compassion, a willingness to be “embarrassing” and “cringe”. To be persistent, patient and not lose hope. To welcome the hard work and the process. To take small wins, stack up learnings, and only compare yourself with where you were, rather than comparing yourself to people who are doing things leagues above what you can currently do, or people who claim to find it so easy. This particularly pertains to my experience of creative work. Doing has so much more value than scheming, the perfect plan, doing all the courses, trying to do it right and looking for some secret hack.

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

― Ira Glass

I love this Ira quote, but I also disagree with the assertion that all people get into creative work because of taste. I certainly did not. I got into creative work because I have some deep need to express. Often badly and tastelessly. It’s more the sort of emergent bubbling up of creative flow you see with children who just want to draw to play, to express, to make and show. I would say I make to digest and sense make these days. My ambition is to follow the impulse. Not an ambition or vision of taste.

I would also argue that the need to produce a volume of work and stay in motion and to fight to make the work persists beyond being a beginner. The learning and skill honing never ends. There is plateau after plateau if you are pushing your limits, experimenting and growing. This is part of the masochistic fun and thrill particularly with writing. The path is made by walking.

“When writers who are just starting out ask me when it gets easier, my answer is never. It never gets easier. I don’t want to scare them, so I rarely say more than that, but the truth is that, if anything, it gets harder.”

— Dani Shapiro

Look, some authors talk about how easily they write, that the whole manuscript was gifted to them in a dream, or that the words just flow. I see people smash out novel after novel and am genuinely perplexed as to how they do that. Look, good for them. But I am yet to experience this. I also make work that is deeply connected with personal matter and topics that require research and that adds friction and time.

So, given my persistent “why is this so hard, what am I doing, how the heck does writing even work, why do I keep doing this, am I stupid” I turn to to literary Titans who have a struggle-heavy relationship with writing to comfort myself:

“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.”

— George Orwell

“A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.”

— Thomas Mann

Sing it fellas!

I am reminding myself and you dear reader, that if you find whatever it is hard, then good. You are learning. You are growing. Keep going. Keep fighting the good fight. There is no magic formula, short cut or secret if you are growing your own creative practice and growth. Just do it, again, again, again.