When an old geezer we’ll call Jesse stared at the mirror each day, he saw the same person he remembered from the day before. No change. But when he compared his image in the mirror to his four-year-old driver’s license, his appearance was undeniably different. Amazingly so.
After twenty years of writing professionally, he assumed he had pretty well learned the craft. From one day to the next, he saw no difference in his writing skills, so he assumed there had been none—that is, until he began an in-depth editing of a two book memoir he had been writing for three years. The second book required only a third as many edits as the first book. His writing was undeniably better. Amazingly so.
In his experience, Jesse confirmed what educator John Holt has said: “We learn to do something by doing it. There is no other way.” And the more we do it with the desire to improve, we can’t stay the same and we can’t be getting worse, so we must be getting better.
Lisa Cron says, “The one thing that makes a person a writer is writing. Butt in chair. Every day. No excuses. Ever.”
You’re a writer if you’ve been writing something almost every day.
You may not have noticed the change, but you’ve been getting a little better every day you’ve written.
