If we haven't met, my name is Joe Bunting, and I'm a Wall Street Journal Best-selling writer, dad, the founder of The Write Practice, and the author of Crowdsourcing Paris. I've also been known to cry in every movie. In my newsletter, I share tips about the writing process and the business of being a writer. Sign up to get free emails about creativity, deliberate practice, and the writing process.
You're probably making things too complicated
Hey Reader,
I'm working with a writer right now who has had six different new ideas for their book in the last six weeks.
Every few days I get a new email from them.
They want the book to be more story driven.
Or no, it needs to be more abstract, idea driven.
Or actually, after a conversation with a colleague, it should be more like a text book.
It's exhausting, and I'm not even the writer.
Two days ago, she emailed me that she's quitting.
Of course she is, I thought. Who wouldn't quit something when it's so complicated?
And that's the problem with every writer, myself included. We make things too complicated. In our perfectionism, ambition, and vanity, we try to do everything. We try to be perfect. We are constantly thinking, constantly churning, constantly trying to reinvent the thing we're working on.
But it ends up spinning us out of control.
The truth is the best writers (and artists and entrepreneurs) have always strived for simplicity.
You don't need more ideas.
You don't need more unique approaches.
You don't need to be perfect, and you certainly don't need to write a perfect first draft (which is impossible anyway).
You just need to relax your body and your mind, put your head down, and do the work.
Finish your daily word count, hit your weekly deadlines, write the draft.
Then, and only then, can you look up and think, well, now what? What are the smallest changes I can make to make this a little better.
Then start again.
The secret is not more innovative work or more perfect work. It's actually more work. The next iteration. Repition. Practice, in other words.
Stop trying to make things more complicated. Instead, make things repeatable. Go through a process, and then when you finish, do it again.
It's practice that makes things perfect, not your complicated perfectionism.
And by the way, stop waiting. Start now, keep going, and don't stop until you're finished.
This Week in Photos
I was in Portland this week, one of my favorite cities in the world, eating the best food and spending time with some of my best friends. Here's a small sample:
Alright folks, that's it from me. Have a great weekend, and see you soon.
Joe
P.S. Do you have any signed books? Which is your favorite?
Hi! I'm Joe, and I'm a writer.
If we haven't met, my name is Joe Bunting, and I'm a Wall Street Journal Best-selling writer, dad, the founder of The Write Practice, and the author of Crowdsourcing Paris. I've also been known to cry in every movie. In my newsletter, I share tips about the writing process and the business of being a writer. Sign up to get free emails about creativity, deliberate practice, and the writing process.
Hey Reader, This week I made one of the most difficult decisions in my career. I chose to end something that was important to me, something I had been working on for years, something I had spent a lot of time, money, and effort on. When I told a friend about my decision, they said, "It makes sense. Now you can focus on what you're best at." Best at. What are you best at? I'm not just talking about skills you have, but approaches, ways of doing things, such that when you show up, things just...
Hey Reader, Writing is an asset. A book can earn passively for decades. A blog post can get search traffic for years. Writing is an asset. But most people don't manage it well. I talked to a friend this week who used to have a thriving blog with thousands of readers per month. But then they got busy, stopped updating it, and let it sit idle. After a while Google updated their alorithms and stopped sending them new readers. Now their writing is lucky if it reaches a few hundred people each...
Hey Reader, Everyone thinks great writers are born talented. You either have what it takes to write a great book, or you don't. You either become successful, or you struggle and never break through. But the truth is great writers are made. Not by school or by luck. Great writer are made through deliberate practice. I was at a conference in Chicago a few years ago and got into a conversation with the organizer. When I told him that I had started a website to train writers called The Write...