Do You Warm Up before Writing?

An experiment conducted by Dutch researchers, as recorded in Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, might have some relevance for writers.  In this experiment, students were to answer 42 questions from the Trivial Pursuit board game.  Half took a few minutes beforehand to think about "what it would mean to be a professor and write down everything that came to mind."  The other group sat and thought about "soccer hooligans."  The results?  The professor-thinker group answered 55.6% right.  The soccer-thinker group, 42.6% right.  The difference between the two groups?  The professor-thinkers were in a "'smart' frame of mind" (Gladwell 56).  This is one example amongst many in the book that shows the effectiveness of priming.

When I read this chapter, I remembered a news story months ago about warming-up and exercise.  The newscast mentioned it might not be necessary, that it didn't really minimize the occurrence of injuries and the like.  But after reading this chapter, I wondered if warm-up affects performance in a different way, like the experiment above.  Maybe it primes the exerciser to do better.  Maybe warming-up can prime a writer to write more effectively.  Perhaps simply going over yesterday's work, reading an article on writing, or looking at grammar from a book can help a person get in writing frame of mind faster and more effectively. 

It's worth a shot.  As I am currently revising the grammar in my novel, I'm going to start by reading about grammar before I work on my novel.  If nothing else, it might force me past that procrastination hurdle currently plaguing me.  Maybe it can do the same for you.  If  you try it, let me know how it works out for you.


Cites:  Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking. New York: Back Bay Books, 2005. Print.

Deliberate Practice and Successful People

 

I was going to write on an entirely different topic today, but I came across a book at the 61 Mile Yardsale entitled Water the Bamboo: Unleashing the Potential of Teams and Individuals by Greg Bell.  I picked up the slender paperback with the attractive cover on Friday, but on Monday, I randomly opened it to see if it were something I wanted to read that day, and I came across the name Ericsson (the same from Ericsson from Gladwell's Outliers), the words "deliberate practice," the Ten-Year Rule (or according to Outliers, the 10,000-hour one), and the belief that successful people are born, not made (Bell 101-102).

As I'm not one to ignore serendipitous nudges such as these, today's topic will expand on my last one about it taking 10,000 hours to becoming a star in the writing field--or a master, as Bell's book entitles such people.  Commentors on my last post had heard of this theory, and they brought up the very important point that isn't just practice, but deliberate practice that is the foundation beneath the 10,000-hours/10-years rule.  Deliberate practice is systematic, "designed to improve performance.  It pushes you beyond your comfort zone, provides feedback on outcomes, and involves lots of repetition" (Bell 101).  But this practice is not just sheer repetition.  Rather, it involves "working on an aspect of the skill you want that's a little bit outside of what you already know" (102).  In other words, it is pushing yourself and your boundaries, deliberately and steadily.

How can you do this?  Well, Water the Bamboo brings up three ways.  They include putting in the hours of deliberate practice, practicing on something outside your comfort zone, and working with a coach who mastered the skills you want and who can give you specific feedback on how to improve (Bell 102).

This isn't exactly new to writers.  After all, haven't published writers, agents, editors, and et al. been saying to keep working on your skills to grow them?  To push outside your comfort zones?  To get outside opinions on your work?

But what do you think on all this?  About the nature of success?  About pushing yourself?  About feedback?  And if you do agree with some of this idea, what do you do for deliberate practice?  What areas are you pushing at?  What are you doing with your feedback?

Cite: Bell, Greg. Water the Bamboo: Unleashing the Potential of Teams and Individuals. Portland: Three Star Publishing, 2009.  Print.

10,000 hours to Writing Success?

 

Does it take 10,000 hours of practice to become a star in the writing world?

In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell gives the example of a study done by K. Anders Ericsson and his colleagues at the Academy of Music in Berlin. Violinists were divided in three categories of stars, good, and those destined to just be teachers. And it was discovered that the stars practiced more than everyone else (Gladwell 38). That the "elite performers had each totaled ten thousand hours of practice" (39). The good, eight thousand. The "future music teachers"? Just over four thousand. Basically, Ericcson didn't find any people that were born stars, bypassing this number, nor did he find people who put in the hours but just couldn't cut it. It was hard work that made the difference, and as Gladwell points out, the stars work far harder than anyone else (39). Ten thousand hours, after all, is a lot of hours.

But that is the figure researchers come across time and time again as necessary to excel at performing a complex task like violin performing . . . or fiction writing (Gladwell 40).

To me, that is inspiring, especially with the crushing expectations of today. While TV shows like Undercover Boss push the message you have to be excellent on day one, able to compete against the vetern of ten-plus years, Gladwell's research comes like a breath of fresh . . . realism. It takes hard work and a lot of hands-on experience to be decent and a great deal more to be excellent. We all have to put in the time.

But having a spark of talent, a lot of passion, and some success sure makes it easier to reach that number.

So, the question is, have you done your 10,000 hours yet?

Cite:  Gladwell, Malcom. Outliers: The Story of Success. New York: Back Bay Books, 2008. Print.