Welcome to my new Friday series, Inspiration Fridays! In this series, I meditate on a passage from the current featured book. Today, I want to talk about two quotes from Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg:
“It is odd that we never question the feasibility of a football team practicing long hours for one game; yet in writing we rarely give ourselves the space for practice.”
“Don’t worry about your talent or capability: that will grow as you practice. . . . If you want to write a novel, write a novel. If it’s essays you want or short stories, write them. In the process of writing them, you will learn how. You can have the confidence that you will gradually acquire the technique and craft you need.”
Goldberg often speaks of the need for frequent, structured writing practice. In Writing Down the Bones, she has entire chapters that are dedicated to it, from establishing routines to sharing her favorite writing prompts. (The book’s publisher even released this fun deck of cards full of writing prompts inspired by the book!) Goldberg herself has notebooks upon notebooks filled with the practice she’s done over the years. She practices what she preaches.
At this point in my life, I sit down to write something or other, whether creative or business-related, practically every day. However, I have yet to establish my own structured creative writing practice (although I have purchased the deck of cards and it's one of my goals to give it a try this year!). I don’t know if I can fully speak to the long-term benefits of a daily writing practice yet, but I can speak to the idea of practice as a whole when it comes to writing—and particularly to the idea of gradual development.
I see so many new writers who feel their very first book is The One that will break them into the market and establish themselves as a successful published author. They’ll be able to quit their day job and live happily ever after on their royalties.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. I had that dream once myself. It's practically a rite of passage for new authors to dream this dream.
But would we expect a scrawny high school freshman in his very first season of football to play as well as the senior about to get an athletic scholarship? Would we expect a first-year piano student to perform at the level of a tenth-year or a fifth-year or even a second-year student?
Of course not.
Think of writing in terms of the long game, with patience and a willingness to suck at it for a while before things get good.
So when it comes to writing, why do we put so much pressure on ourselves to produce something professional and polished and complex, something publishable that can compete in a very fierce market, on our very first try? Or even our second or third try?
I think what Goldberg wants us to do is think of writing in terms of the long game, with patience and a willingness to suck at it for a while before things get good. She wants us to think of it not as something that happens quickly or spontaneously, but as a skill that is carefully built by doing it again and again and again, usually for many years. “You will gradually acquire the technique and craft you need.” Gradually.
Good things take time. As they should. So let’s “give ourselves the space for practice,” in whatever form that may take. Over time, we will build the technique and the muscle memory and the stamina to produce good writing that can change the world one reader at a time.
Do you have a daily writing practice? What does that look like for you?
Watch for more meditations on Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones! Happy writing!
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