Comments on: Becoming Competent http://odeskinsider.com/blog/becoming-competent/ Freelancing is more fun with oDesk Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:09:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Incurable Disease of Writing » Blog Archive » Just Write Blog Carnival July 11, 2008 Edition http://odeskinsider.com/blog/becoming-competent/comment-page-1/#comment-337 Incurable Disease of Writing » Blog Archive » Just Write Blog Carnival July 11, 2008 Edition Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:09:29 +0000 http://www.odeskinsider.com/?p=157#comment-337 [...] presents Becoming Competent - oDesk Insider posted at oDesk Insider, saying, “Three activities that writers–real [...] [...] presents Becoming Competent – oDesk Insider posted at oDesk Insider, saying, “Three activities that writers–real [...]

]]> By: Dave Robinson http://odeskinsider.com/blog/becoming-competent/comment-page-1/#comment-319 Dave Robinson Sun, 06 Jul 2008 02:26:49 +0000 http://www.odeskinsider.com/?p=157#comment-319 That's a great post Bill. I'd also like to recommend that people try out the forums at Absolute Write as well. They're at www.absolutewrite.com/forums and the posters have a wealth of experience. I agree completely with the importance of writing. It's the old saying, "A writer writes." Ray Bradbury once said that in order to get good you need to write "a million words of crap." That million words works out to about two thousand single-spaced pages and that equates to a whole bunch of hours with your butt in the chair. If you're just starting out it may sound insurmountable, but there is no way around it. In order to get good at anything you have to practice enough that you can completely ignore the mechanics of what you're doing and focus on the end result. Martial artists and musicians both know this. They practice the basics until they no longer have to think about them. In the case of musicians, they focus on the music, not the playing. As a writer, you have to do the same thing. You can't be worrying about the basics of forming a sentence and when to use an apostrophe. You need to be able to focus on converting ideas into words, and that means not worrying about the mechanics. It's the same reason most good writers are touch-typists: Whatever attention you have to devote to hunting for a key is attention you can't devote to getting your words across. I also second just how important it is to read. You should read voraciously, and not just in your comfort zone. Read good books and bad, get a wide experience with what other people have done. The more you read the more you will have a gut understanding of what works and what doesn't in your own writing because you've seen it in someone else's. Finally, the thing you should remember if you're going to take this up seriously is that just because everyone learns to write at school does not mean that everyone learns how to write well at school. Just about everyone who reads this will have a driver's license, but that doesn't mean we're qualified to take a car out on the track in Formula 1 or NASCAR. I'm never going to be good enough to drive for Jaguar at Le Mans. Writing is the same way, if you want to do it professionally, you need to take it seriously and put in the time. If you do that, you'll not only be competent, but you'll have people asking you to work for them, rather than having to go ask them for work. That’s a great post Bill. I’d also like to recommend that people try out the forums at Absolute Write as well. They’re at http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums and the posters have a wealth of experience.

I agree completely with the importance of writing. It’s the old saying, “A writer writes.” Ray Bradbury once said that in order to get good you need to write “a million words of crap.” That million words works out to about two thousand single-spaced pages and that equates to a whole bunch of hours with your butt in the chair.

If you’re just starting out it may sound insurmountable, but there is no way around it. In order to get good at anything you have to practice enough that you can completely ignore the mechanics of what you’re doing and focus on the end result. Martial artists and musicians both know this. They practice the basics until they no longer have to think about them. In the case of musicians, they focus on the music, not the playing.

As a writer, you have to do the same thing. You can’t be worrying about the basics of forming a sentence and when to use an apostrophe. You need to be able to focus on converting ideas into words, and that means not worrying about the mechanics. It’s the same reason most good writers are touch-typists: Whatever attention you have to devote to hunting for a key is attention you can’t devote to getting your words across.

I also second just how important it is to read. You should read voraciously, and not just in your comfort zone. Read good books and bad, get a wide experience with what other people have done. The more you read the more you will have a gut understanding of what works and what doesn’t in your own writing because you’ve seen it in someone else’s.

Finally, the thing you should remember if you’re going to take this up seriously is that just because everyone learns to write at school does not mean that everyone learns how to write well at school. Just about everyone who reads this will have a driver’s license, but that doesn’t mean we’re qualified to take a car out on the track in Formula 1 or NASCAR. I’m never going to be good enough to drive for Jaguar at Le Mans.

Writing is the same way, if you want to do it professionally, you need to take it seriously and put in the time.

If you do that, you’ll not only be competent, but you’ll have people asking you to work for them, rather than having to go ask them for work.

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