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Monday, January 9, 2012

Contrived

When one wants to become good at something, one is encouraged to practice.  Right?  I've mentioned that to become proficient at something you have to spend 10,000 hours doing it.

So, is it contrived to blog often?  If you are a blogger and you want to become good at blogging or even if you don't want to become good at blogging, you just want to improve your writing, you write.  If you want to write poetry, is it contrived to write a poem every day?  If you want to be a wonderful chef, is it contrived to cook every day?  If you want to be a wonderful actor or lawyer, is it contrived to tell lies every day?  (just kidding, not really, yes I am, no I'm not.)

There seems to be a trend of thinking out there amongst the younger folks, that one is BORN being talented in some area or another.  I'm guessing, and I could be wrong, but I don't think so, this trend of thinking comes from observing teen pop stars like Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift and (from the olden days) Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.  There is a trend of thinking that believes these folks were born talented and luckily, became RICH and FAMOUS.  And, the thinking continues, if it happened to these folks, it could happen to me, as well.  I mean, aren't I talented?  My high-school art teacher said I showed some talent.  And, I saved all the pictures I drew in high school and they must be worth hundreds of dollars now.  And, I play the guitar some and, even if I don't play every day, I'm still as good as any rock star and I deserve to be rich and famous, too.  I think there may be a disconnect with the fact that these LUCKY pop stars didn't graduate from high school and spent ALL their time singing or dancing or both and there was a lot of hard work involved and there were parents giving up their time and energy, as well.  But, ... who's thinking about that.

Practicing is thought of as contrived.  I guess the words or the music or the art or the cooking or the arguing is supposed to flow through a person organically.  Anything of any worth or value comes out of the person without rehearsal.  If the music or the art or the cooking or the arguing has been practiced or rehearsed, it is contrived.  In my point of view, this is just being lazy.

Practicing, especially when you don't want to do it, is what makes you proficient at whatever it is you want to do well.  It not only gives you the opportunity to do your thing 10,000 times, it teaches you to have the discipline to keep working at whatever it is you want to do, even when it becomes tough to do.

If I want to be a better writer, I need to write every day.  Even when I have a tough time thinking of a topic to write about.  Even when the topic is something that isn't so much fun to write about.  If I want to become a better writer, I need to write.


9 comments:

  1. i could not agree more...if you are a writer you write...and you write every day...it is discipline...it does not have to be good but you do it...agree...

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  2. Hmmm... I'm not sure what I think of this. There are definitely times and seasons when the "act" of writing is and needs to be a constant. But I think many things count as parts of the discipline of being a writer. For example, I depend on long walks and time spent outdoors in nature to fill my soul with things to put on paper. If that counts as "writing" then I definitely agree with you. But I feel I so easily dry up if my emphasis is on the pen-and-paper (or the keyboard, as it were ;) )

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  3. Hemingway wrote every morning, standing up. Then he lived as if there were no tomorrow.

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  4. Truth. Write write and write some more. It's something I'm going to try and do more myself. And btw....I'm loving your blog!

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  5. Good words of wisdom here. Thanks. Keep on writin'! 

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  6. Kristen Wiig is my favorite! Between homeschooling and my blog, I think I write every day. I also write affirmations almost every day. I like handwriting better than typing, but I'm faster at typing than at handwriting.

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  7. As long as you are enjoying it - write.  I think that is the key. 

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