8 Things You Must Do To Be Excellent In Your Craft #MondayBlogs

Eight Things You Must Do To Be Excellent In Your Craft

By: @10minnovelist  (Katharine Grubb)

I am a writer, but I like to see myself as an artist. I find it helpful to see myself not as someone who can create a sentence but someone who is a craftsman, an artisan perhaps. I have a romantic image in my head of an old time artisan carver or sculptor who spend long hours in his studio creating. This studio in my head is dusty and covered with debris. Sunlight streams through the slats of the wood walls. My tools are scattered all over. I’ve sat, hovered over my workbench for years. I’d like to think that I know my art. I’d like to think that my experience is vast. I’d like to believe that I’m known for quality. I’d like to believe that I’m excellent.

You are an artist too. You have the potential to be excellent, but you must see yourself as an artist and expect excellence in yourself.

How do you do this?

You must know your medium. You must be an avid reader, who spends time with his words. You must have ingested and breathed in the words of the greatest of writers so that you can recognize excellence. You must know the nuances of your genre and the universal elements of story.

 

You must master spelling, grammar and punctuation. You must not be lazy in crafting your sentences. You must know why word choice, arrangement and mechanics matter. Grammar, spelling and punctuation are the etiquette of the written word. A writer’s respect for the rules allows readers to feel at ease.

 

You must know your tools. That means that you need to feel at ease with your laptop, new applications and anything else you use to write.

 

You must have written. Good writing, like everything else in life, comes with practice. If you have not the discipline of writing in your day, then your skills and craftsmanship will suffer. Some experts claim it takes 10,000 hours to be an expert. It should never occur to you to find a shortcut.

 

You must hold yourself to a high standard. This means that you must have the habit of brutal editing. You must not ever love an idea, a sentence, a phrase, a scene or an entire act so passionately that you aren’t willing to cut it for the sake of vision. You must be able to recognize your own flaws and then receive correction well when others point yours out.

 

You must understand the process. You must not expect your first drafts to be of no more value than a chunk of coal is to a diamond collector. You must understand that first drafts are the raw material, that the next steps require hammering, chiseling, sawing, whacking and sculpting something beautiful out of it. You must never be afraid to fill up your literal and figurative trash bin with discarded ideas and words.

 

You must always be willing to learn. You must be open to new ideas and new processes. You must be inspired to tell an old story a new way. You must be willing to push yourself into new genres or new methods or new ways to develop ideas.

 

You must not hold back. When the story is told, it needs to be told with all that is in you. Your true soul must come to the page. You must be willing to be vulnerable and honest. You will see real magic happen when you write authentically from the heart. You will be able to throw off the dead shell of cliche and predictability if you write from the darkness and power that is in you.

 

When I see myself in this light, as an artist, then my approach toward my writing changes. I take my art more seriously and hold myself to a higher standard. I take my time to take the unclear and make it clearer. I carve the obscure words to make them known. I gather my arguments carefully when I point to truth. I understand words are powerful. It can still in others new ideas or old emotions. I know my words can be weapons of destruction or bouquets of peace. With my words, I act as  a commander, lining up my words and phrases to advance, conquer, and occupy. With my words, I invite my reader to dance with me. I charm my readers with my turns of phrase, my smooth ideas or my popping arrangement. When I am excellent, I show my respect for my art, I show respect to my reader and I show respect to myself.

You are a craftsman too. Take the time to be excellent.

About the Author 

Katharine Grubb is a homeschooling mother of five, a novelist, a baker of bread, a comedian wannabe, a former running coward and the author of Write A Novel In 10 Minutes A Day. Besides pursuing her own fiction and nonfiction writing dreams, she also leads 10 Minute Novelists on Facebook, an international group for time-crunched writers that focuses on tips, encouragement and community. She blogs at www.10minutenovelist.com. She lives in Massachusetts with her family. Her new novel, Soulless Creatures, which is two 18 year old boys, not vampires, will be released August 2015.