The next thing that helped me fine-tune my writing without my realizing it was, (okay, this is just too easy, but really, some of us needed to learn this) to Just Do It. That’s right, practice, practice, practice. I remember reading in my son’s fifth grade science book ALL about how to build a rocket, in minute detail, yet, if you laid out all the parts in my garage for me to build it, I wouldn’t even know the first step to take. Because reading about it, while certainly beneficial and necessary, is not enough. I need rocket experts to come over and show me what to do. I need lots of hands-on experience. And I need to build a bunch of rockets, over and over, day in and day out, before I can consider myself an expert.
So all those stories you started and didn’t finish? Or the ones you finished, but they were lame and took up residence in the circular file? That was not wasted effort. Not at all. Just like my pile of discarded rocket parts, your hundreds of pages of practice represent lots of hard work and steady improvement.
So keep drilling yourself, every day, and you will be able to look back and see your own improvement. Be proud of those full wastebaskets. At least you’re making the effort, unlike me. I never really started the rocket.
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