When an athletes are wildly successful, no one questions that in addition to talent, they have put in countless hours practicing, relentlessly drilling themselves on specific maneuvers and training their bodies to be in prime condition. When a writer is wildly successful, the reverse is true. Most people assume that great writers achieve success because of their talent, and of course, they probably honed their craft a bit too.
It isn’t only readers who have this assumption. Authors themselves (myself included) often underestimate the amount of time, effort and practice needed to make their writing good. I am a huge fan of Malcolm Gladwell’s books, and I loved the part of Outliers where he discusses the 10,000 hour rule. Basically, Gladwell studied extremely successful people and proposed that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become a master in a field. This is both incredibly encouraging and incredibly daunting. The encouraging part is that almost anyone can become good at something if they put in their 10,000 hours. The daunting part is that it takes that much time to get good. But throw in some talent as well, and you can really make a mark.
Even though studies have argued that Gladwell’s theory is only partly true, and practice can only take you so far, as authors I think we all to often undervalue putting the time in to hone our craft. It isn’t 10,000 hours including writing grocery lists, or even sporadically writing stories since you were a kid. I think putting in the time means concentrated effort over a continuous period of time. Like any muscle, your writing can weaken when you neglect it, and it will take additional time to strengthen it after a period away.
If you look at famous authors, the truth of the 10,000 hour rule often plays out. It took J.K. Rowling six years to write the first book in the Harry Potter series. Suzanne Collins of Hunger Games fame has been doing scriptwriting for almost three decades and book writing for over a decade. The Hunger Games isn’t even her first series – she wrote The Underland Chronicles first. The list goes on.
I’m finishing up my fourth full-length novel, and I’ve also written three screenplays. I don’t know if I’ve logged 10,000 hours writing, or if that matters. But I do know that my writing is better now than it’s ever been. I think about my craft more now than before, and my approach has evolved. So even if The Conjurors Series never makes me money, I could never consider it time wasted. I loved the writing of it, and it has fundamentally changed me as a writer. Looking at it this way, I could give the series away and consider it a success.
Soon I’ll be on to the next challenge, but I’ll take all that I’ve learned with me.
Kristen Pham 