This helps take the pressure off because we can easily get stressed out by feeling like we have to create a perfect article, social media post, email, or book chapter every time we sit down to write. But no single thing we write is the defining element of our body of work. It’s part of a much larger whole. If you’re writing a book, don’t think of it as one book, but many. What if you thought about writing a dozen books over the next ten years? How would that change your point of view? Fem Chelsey sydney sweeney nude gif It takes the pressure off. Whatever you’re writing, it’s just a snapshot of where you are right now in your learning and life. There is no end to your knowledge and learning. So just write it now and move on. Your legacy isn’t just one book. The one book doesn’t represent the end-all, be-all of your learning. At the Taylor Guitars company, they said, “The best guitar we make is the one we make tomorrow.” In the same vein, the best book you write is the one you write tomorrow. Always be improving and adding a bit each day to your body of work.Question: Does thinking about your writing as a larger body of work help take the pressure off what you are working on now?

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One of them is knowledge. It seems like we should know what we are getting ourselves into, right? Who respects a writer who seems aloof and doesn’t know what’s going on?

Another quality we prize is humility. Surely we don’t want to become one of those writers who have a pretty high opinion of themselves, right?

There is some truth in that. But there is also something to be said for going ahead and doing the work even though we don’t have it all figured out. There is something to be said for having a pretty good amount of confidence in who we are and what we have to say.

It’s a balance, to be sure. But so many writers are timid and unsure that perhaps a good old-fashioned attitude of “I don’t know and I don’t care” would do us some good now and then.

Or as Steven Pressfield wrote in his fantastic little book, Do the Work: “Ignorance and arrogance are the artist and entrepreneur’s indispensable allies. She must be clueless enough to have no idea how difficult her enterprise is going to be—and cocky enough to believe she can pull it off anyway.”

It’s OK not to have everything figured out. It’s OK to be confident and courageous. You’re good enough. You’re smart enough. And if you stick with it, you’re gonna make it.

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The writer Matthew Kelly said, “It is important to understand that you are not writing a story or a book, or a sentence or a paragraph. You are writing a body of work. Whatever you are writing today is just one small part of that body of work.”

This helps take the pressure off because we can easily get stressed out by feeling like we have to create a perfect article, social media post, email, or book chapter every time we sit down to write. But no single thing we write is the defining element of our body of work. It’s part of a much larger whole.

If you’re writing a book, don’t think of it as one book, but many. What if you thought about writing a dozen books over the next ten years? How would that change your point of view? It takes the pressure off.

Whatever you’re writing, it’s just a snapshot of where you are right now in your learning and life. There is no end to your knowledge and learning. So just write it now and move on. Your legacy isn’t just one book. The one book doesn’t represent the end all, be all of your learning.

At the Taylor Guitars company, they said, “The best guitar we make is the one we make tomorrow.” In the same vein, the best book you write is the one you write tomorrow. Always be improving and adding a bit each day to your body of work.

Daily Question: Does thinking about your writing as a larger body of work help take the pressure off what you are working on now?

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Are you wondering what to write about? Look no further than your own skills and talents. Another way of saying this is, “What comes easy to you?” What seems obvious? What could you do in your sleep and still be better than 99% of people?

Those are the things you should be writing about.

When something comes easy to you, it may seem like it’s easy for everyone else. Not true. What is easy for you is hard for a lot of other people.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said, “Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.” Don’t ignore your skills, wisdom, knowledge, and experience as writing topics. These are the very things you should write about because you have a perspective that others need.

Daily Question: What are three things that come easy to you, and how can you share them through your writing?

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There is a fascinating scene in the original 1984 Ghostbuster movie that has an interesting application for writers. The three ghostbusters, played by Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis are trying to capture a ghost flying around a hotel ballroom. Their proton packs emit a powerful stream of energy that trap the ghost and pull it down to a small box that traps its supernatural energy.

However, Egon Spengler, played by Ramis, warns them not to cross the streams or it will have dire consequences. Ironically, crossing these streams of energy is the very thing that allows them to defeat the villain Gozer, as well as the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man later in the movie.

When it comes to curiosity, most people don’t cross the streams. They keep their reservoirs of knowledge separate from one another. History, religion, arts, psychology, politics, technology … they keep them in their nice little boxes.

The best creative ideas come from blending these areas, from the cross-pollination of interesting ideas. The only way to create new ideas is to cross your streams of knowledge and experience.

This is why as a writer you must read in different genres and categories. You must talk to people who are different than you. You must take ideas from one realm of knowledge and blend them with ideas from other realms.

You can’t produce new ideas from the same base of knowledge and experience. You must cross-pollinate. You must cross the streams if you want to reach higher levels of creativity.

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As we talked about yesterday, you need to have a system where you can plant or store all the thoughts, information, and ideas you will use as raw material for writing. And while that is an important start, you need to water these tiny seeds so they can grow into something useful.

There are all kinds of ways to explore your curiosity and seek knowledge, but none of them compare to reading. We have a plethora of ways to gain knowledge today, including podcasts, ebooks, audiobooks, videos, courses, and so much more.

But none of these learning sources compare to good old-fashioned books. When you engage with a great book, you enter into a sustained dialogue with the author. You take a journey you cannot get any other way.

So make reading books a habit. The mode doesn’t matter as much as the fact that you are reading them. Ebooks, print books, audiobooks—they all lead to the same result.

Reading will help you connect the dots, spur new ideas, fill in the gaps of your knowledge, and inspire you to keep writing. Aside from consistent writing, reading is the habit that will nourish and expand your seeds of ideas into a bountiful harvest later on.

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William Goldman was one of the most successful Hollywood screenwriters of all time. He was the creative genius behind scripts for The Princess Bride and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, among many others. In total, he had nearly three dozen scripts produced, which is remarkable by anyone’s standards.

In his funny and insightful book Adventures in the Screen Trade, he famously said, “Nobody knows anything. Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what’s going to work. Every time out it’s a guess and, if you’re lucky, an educated one.”

This is a vital truth to understand not just in the movie business, but any creative endeavor, including writing. The truth is that nobody knows what is going to work. There is no set standard about what constitutes a great movie, a great book, or a great anything for that matter.

Whenever writers get together, we sometimes talk about the successful ones as “great writers.” Maybe you have friends who have written books and you consider them “great writers” because of their success.

But what does it mean to be a great writer in a world where nobody knows anything? How do we quantify and measure success, much less hope to achieve it?

Greatness means that you accomplished what you set out to do. It means identifying who your audience is and serving them well. It means being consistent with your writing and making it a habit.

When you reframe greatness, it is completely within your reach. You and you alone get to define what it means for you to be a great writer. Travel your own pathway and live by your own definition of greatness.

Because at the end of the day, nobody knows anything.

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It is important that you learn from other writers who can share their knowledge. In the same way, you must help other writers be more successful. There are plenty of people in your orbit who would love to achieve your level of success, whatever that might be.

Even if your only level of experience is starting a blog, there are plenty of writers who would love to learn how to do that. Don’t dismiss your skills just because they seem common. If you’ve taken time to build or create something, you can teach it to someone else.

It doesn’t mean you have to label yourself as a teacher or set yourself up as some big expert. It just means that you’re sharing what you have learned. You can do this on social media, your blog, an email newsletter, speaking, and so many other ways.

A simple but powerful way to help other writers is to host a weekly mastermind call. I have been a part of a writer’s mastermind group for years. Each week, we meet on Zoom and talk about our successes and challenges. That weekly meeting has an amazing way of encouraging my spirit.

It also helps the other writers because they have challenges of their own. The whole idea of a mastermind is to bring together like-minded people to help each other solve your problems. I can’t begin to tell you how many times over the years that a mastermind has helped me push through a problem or obstacle.

And many times, the obstacle isn’t somewhere out there… it’s in my own head. I’m my own worst enemy. But when I help other people, it gets the focus off myself and reminds me that I do have some things to teach others. If you have a brain and you can write words, you can teach others.

Somebody out there needs your knowledge, and you can change their life by sharing it with them.

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There is a part of each one of us that wants to be admired. We want to be respected. We want other people to think of us highly. And why not? That is completely in line with human nature. From the dawn of time, men and women have struggled to gain power over one another in order to get the attention and admiration of our peers.

One way we do this as writers is by trying to appear smart. We use big words and sometimes throw in obscure references in the hopes that others will think we are accomplished and intelligent. Many people in the academic world fall prey to this type of thinking, believing that more degrees and titles, and evermore complicated papers—or perhaps a dissertation—will finally earn them the respect they deserve.

This isn’t to say that academic study is a waste of time. But let’s face it—a lot of academic writing has more to do with posturing and making the writer look smart, instead of being truly useful.

Sometimes big words are necessary, of course, depending on the context. However, for the most part, the best writing is simple, clear, and direct.

Think of the most effective communicators in history such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Lincoln, or Ronald Reagan. They used simple words, told stories, and communicated well in order to make their meaning clear.

The famous novelist Jack Kerouac said, “One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.” Indeed, the right words are almost always simple, rather than hard to understand.

There is nothing wrong with sounding smart and having other people admire you for your knowledge. But isn’t it so much better to have people actually read your writing, and not only read it, but understand and share it?

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