The Secret to Good Writing

The secret is that there is no secret

There’s Always a Catch

If there was a pill that could cure all your ailments, would you take it?

Of course you would.

I would, too.

Now, some of us are more suspicious — we’ve been around the block and we know there’s no such thing as a free lunch. What are the side effects? Give me some guarantees? What’s the catch?

And that’s it —

There’s always a catch.

So why do we fall for clickbait such as:

• The ULTIMATE PRODUCTIVITY HACK that allows you to get 100x more done in half the time
• The SPECIAL DIET that allows you to eat ANYYTHING you want and lose a million pounds
• The SECRET to viral writing that will make LITERAL viruses jealous

Why?

Pill-centric thinking.

Pill-Centric Thinking

If you have a headache you take a pill. If you’re vitamin deficient? Pill. We want quick and easy fixes to our problems; after all, we live in the 21st century!

The internet hasn’t helped.

Amazon delivers packages in two days or less. Tik Tok influencers tell us that we can get rich in a couple of months by working a couple of hours a week at home.

It’s all so tempting — why?

Because we’re LAZY.

Okay, I’ll speak for myself. I don’t know about you but I’m lazy.

Feel better?

Sometimes it’s better not to feel it.

Reminder: All Good Things Take Effort

Sometimes we need a reminder that there is no secret. Shortcuts don’t get you to your destination faster — they don’t get you there at all. All good things take time to build.

I mean, who would want to live in the house that got built the fastest?

If you’re trying to become a writer you’re not going to become one in a day. You won’t reach thousands of people with one post. You won’t earn a living by dabbling.

Writing takes effort.

There Is No Secret

The secret? There isn’t one. There is no secret sauce.

The ingredients remain the same for you as they did for Tolstoy and Oliver and Fitzgerald and Shakespeare himself:

• Consistency.
• Craft.
• Criticism.

Write every day, work at your craft, and learn from criticism along the way. There’s no way around it. You can only go through.

So what’s it going to be?

Another pill, another secret hack, another shortcut? Or are you going to write another article, read to improve, and put your work out there for the world to critique?

If you made it this far, I think I know.

Thanks for Reading!