Word of the Week — “Prolific”
“Mozart was prolific.” The first time I heard the word was in that sentence. It means he wrote a lot of music. Prolific - It rolls off the tongue better than most words.
I would like to be a prolific writer. I once heard a pastor named John Wimber say that if you want to see someone physically healed by your prayers, pray for 1000 people, “that way,” he said, “you’re bound to at least get lucky.”
So, “if you want to write something good, write 1000 things. You’re bound to get lucky.”
But it’s more than that. If you write 1000 things, you won’t just get lucky; you’ll get good. Why, because of what the finance guys call “the magic of compound interest.”
I am a father of 5 wonderful children ranging from the ages of 13-22.
I try to teach them things. My wife says I should do more listening and less talking, and she is probably right (and I’m going to work on that). But one thing I am always trying to teach them is the magic of compound interest.
I want to save and invest vicariously through them, because at 50 years old, I understand I have missed a massive opportunity. I tell them, “You have no idea what will happen if you start investing now and let it ride until you’re my age!”
(We actually do make them save and invest half of everything they make until they’re 18.)
Okay, some people just don’t care about money. But the magic of compound interest applies to a million other things. Building skills is one of those things. Writing is a skill.
Mozart was always a pretty good composer, but he was better later in life, vastly better, for one simple reason: he composed a ton of music. He was prolific.
The moral of all this is that if you and I will be prolific in our writing, our skill will compound.
You aren’t able to fathom today the writer you will be in five years if you will write every day. If you will expose your writing to feedback, it’ll increase the interest rate of your compounding. If you’ll read great writing and even copy some of it, you’ll increase the interest rate even more.
The Farnam Street Blog this week quoted Charles Schulz, who created Snoopy and Charlie Brown. He’s talking about creating a comic strip, but you’ll see how it applies to anything.
One of the hardest things for a beginner to do is merely to get started on his first set of comic strips. It is strange that most people who have ambitions in the cartoon field are not willing to put in the great amount of work that many other people do in comparable fields. Most people who have comic-strip ambition wish to be able to draw only two or three weeks' material and then have it marketed. They are not willing to go through many years of apprenticeship. (My Life with Charlie Brown)
I’m telling you, this is how it works, but you are too worried about how you write now. You know it’s not good enough, and you are (probably) right. But you simply can’t get better if you don’t just start writing the stuff that you will later be embarrassed about.
Do it!
You don’t have time to hesitate.
Which Reminds Me…
I saw an old article in The NY Times this week by Joseph Epstien in 2002 that ticked me off on behalf of all of us.
There is something very American in the notion that almost everyone has a book in him or her. (In the survey of 1,006 Americans, sponsored by a small Michigan publisher, almost equal numbers of people said they wanted to write a novel, a nonfiction work, a self-help book or a cookbook.) Certainly, it is a democratic notion, suggesting that everybody is as good as everybody else -- and, by extension, one person's story or wisdom is as interesting as the next's. Then there is the equally false notion of creativity that has been instilled in students for too many years. It was Paul Valéry who said that the word ''creation'' has been so overused that even God must be embarrassed to have it attributed to him.
Misjudging one's ability to knock out a book can only be a serious and time-consuming mistake. Save the typing, save the trees, save the high tax on your own vanity. Don't write that book, my advice is, don't even think about it. Keep it inside you, where it belongs.
Man! I could not disagree more, and it’s not just because I’m a ghostwriter and book writing coach. I’m a ghostwriter and book writing coach because I disagree with this.
I don’t have time to do stuff I don’t believe in, and I believe everyone has a book in them, because when we write, deep, deep stuff comes out, not only of us, but out of somewhere “out there.” That stuff is waiting to be written down and shared with the world.
Let’s show that so-and-so what we think about his opinion. Do some writing today and start compounding your skill until you’ve written something we all need and want to read.
Truth
I hope we get to hear about the lessons you’ve learned through your suffering. I’m eager to learn from your experiences. Your suffering was not in vain, especially if you share what it taught you.
The deepest truths didn’t come from what you were told, but from what you lived. But if you tell us, we’ll at least have a framework to consider our own experiences and suffering.
There is nothing more important than seeking and applying what is objectively true, especially when we discover it in fire.
Jesus said that He is the Truth, but that doesn’t mean there are not lots of other true things.
And Now, a Word from Our Sponsor
I’m sort of addicted to buying digital real estate. I get an idea for a web domain I might want, and I go to SiteGround to see if it is available and BUY IT, usually for about 18 bucks for a whole year.
All my websites are hosted on SiteGround and I love how user friendly it is, even for a Gen Xer like me.
Click on this link to check it out if you need a website.
And Now, a Word from Our Other Sponsor
Need a coach to help you write your book? Check out ChristianWritingCoach.net. You might see a familiar face. Fill out the contact form and you can be on your way.
Jeff, I think people underrate prolific. Prolific gets you practice, practice reveals your raw spots, then you get better and better till you are good :-)