How to be a master of your craft

For a while, finishing university meant I felt like an expert. Or at least, like some of my expertise had been validated by society. But this isn’t true. I’ve always said, but I guess I forgot, that learning is never done. It’s not a destination to be reached, like now I am knowledgable or an expert. It’s a never ending journey. And in a more literal sense, for people who want to be real experts or masters will always study further. They may do a Masters in their field or a phd or whatever else.

Now, I’m not going to do that. I’m not going back to university to do an official masters degree. Instead, I am going to channel that energy into my learning journey. I’m going to treat my next steps as a Masters degree of sorts, where I focus my learning, research and practice into a goal. Where I experiment and get feedback and put my work out there to see what sticks.

My problem is for a number of years now, I’ve worked on novels but not many at once or many short stories or submitted my work anywhere. The last competition I entered was back in 2018. Yes, I’ve been preoccupied with university and full-time work a little, but I don’t see that as an excuse. I’ve had time off here and there where I could have done more. Maybe that’s not true. Maybe I did the best with what I had. So maybe from 2019-2023, I can allow myself some grace and know that I was developing while doing university (I studied creative writing and English literature, so it aligns with my writing career pursuits) and tried my best.

Now I’m in the next phase, then, and so I need to get back to what I was doing from 2013-2018 (the years I self-published and was more active with my writing pursuits), but learn from my mistakes and take my newfound expertise and maturity into my next steps. To regain that tenacity and self-belief into actively pursuing my goal of being a paid and published author without fear and passivity and self-doubt.

Am I talking about overworking? Overwhelming myself with unfair deadlines and expectations? No. But I do want to be more strategic, experimental, and focused. Not just a casual writer who writes sometimes when she’s inspired: a hobbyist (which is of course fine, just not me). If I were still a student, I would have to produce work and research and study. So I need to do that, for myself, on my own schedule and hold myself accountable.

I’m not going to lie, and anyone who reads all of my blog posts already knows, I have had many epiphanies and plans and new habit ideas and the like in a way to hack my systems and become more successful. I get an idea for something that sounds good and I think it might work. It must change my life or at least hack how I do things. But honestly, it rarely happens that way or lasts. Something may work briefly and then I’m back to square one. That’s because sometimes it’s not about hacks or fancy ideas. Often it’s just simple hard work. Peeling everything back and just getting down to doing the things you authentically want and need to do for you.

I’ve watched a few things about mastery lately. YouTubers who made it big, sports stars, and the Queen’s Gambit about a master chess player. They all have something in common: astounding work ethic. They all worked incredibly hard to make their dreams come true, or to be experts in their fields. The saying goes that it takes 10,000 hours to master something. My husband asked me if I think I’ve put 10,000 hours into my writing. I said I definitely had. I’ve been writing since I was about 8 years old. I’m now 28, almost 29. Every year I’ve worked on stories. There’s times in between when I’ve not been as active, but no year went by without me working on a story. Plus all the hours of blog posts, articles, essays, poems and the like, it’s all hours under my belt.

But I am no master. I’ve a lot of work left to do.

And so, this is me just announcing that I am doing the work. Not to reach some arbitrary milestone of being a “master” now, but to enter into a journey of mastery. To accept this journey as lifelong and to enjoy the dedication to something. That even if I never make money from my writing, the simple act of doing it brings me joy and fulfilment. Getting better, and yes, hopefully reaching more people will bring me joy. But seeing a long trail of manuscripts and poems and posts and prose pieces in my wake as I journey through life feels beautiful and right to me. I just need to focus a bit more on what that looks like; dedicating real time to it, and not giving up or getting in my head about it.

Here’s to always being a student of life and art. Here’s to the journey of mastery that has no end destination. Here’s to practising, always.

Sincerely,

S. xx