Preparation makes success, and unpreparedness makes failure

There are many people who love writing and have made it their lifelong dream to be a writer. Today, instead of talking about writing skills, we're going to talk about writing as a path.

If we compare writing to a garden, we need to ask ourselves a question before we build the garden: Why did you build the garden? The question of motivation to write is whether you can follow through with your writing.

In his book "Why I Write," the famous writer George Orwell summarized the motives of writing into four types:

1. Pure individualism. Simply put, it is self-centered, writing entirely in your own way, focusing on self-expression. 2, aesthetic enthusiasm. It can be understood as the pursuit of artistic beauty in literature, and therefore want to share it with others. 3. Sense of historical responsibility. Eager to see the history of the original, eager to dig out the truth and record faithfully for future generations. 4. Political purpose. The use of literature as a political tool.

Orwell argues that these different kinds of motivation do not exist in isolation, and that the weight of a particular writer varies from time to time, and that in his own case, the first three motivations outweigh the fourth.

In my opinion, whether you are writing commercially or for no purpose, there is no superior or inferior motivation for writing. In my own experience, when I was young, I dreamed of becoming an archaeologist and a painter. When I grew up, I worked in an ordinary but stable job in the post office. In those gloomy years, I found the antidote and pleasure in reading and writing. For a long time, I wrote as I worked, until one day, when I realized that writing could pay for itself, I threw myself into a new endeavor. For me, writing is a love that comes from the heart.

Many people are confused about the choice between part-time and full-time writing. I think if you can support yourself by writing, you can write exclusively at home without any qualms. However, it is important to note that supporting yourself is only a basic need for survival, not to allow yourself to live in comfort and dignity. If your income is not stable, you can do part-time writing for a while and allocate your time reasonably.

After clarifying our motives for building a garden, we need to consider the overall style of the garden and the kinds of flowers, that is, the choice of writing type. How to choose the type of writing? I have two suggestions. The first is to write about your favorite type. Writing is like the great path forked borges's garden, there are so many branches leads to different directions, such as novels, prose, poetry, comments are writing style of the big, but in the novel is divided into pure literary novel and type of novel, type in the novel can be divided into mystery, thriller, thriller DengZi type, and AD copy writing with new media, It can be said that there are many types of writing, and each type has different requirements, and each choice of the author will lead to different results. It's easier to write in a genre that interests you. Interest is the best teacher, after all.

The second point is to stick to one genre deep writing. When I started writing, I wasn't really writing suspense novels. I was writing poetry. Poetry is about refined words and artistic conception, while fiction is more about plot and characters. These are two completely different types of writing. Later, I chose the genre of mystery novels mainly because I found that I had a talent in this field, and it was also in line with my interests. From 2000 to now, I have been writing suspense novels for nearly 20 years without interruption. From the initial pursuit of psychological suspense with ups and downs in the plot to the later social suspense with more social elements, I have been deeply exploring the garden of suspense and seeking for new changes. So, if you know what kind of writing you like, stick to it. Breaking in one direction may be more successful than trying to do everything.

Having determined the style of the garden, all that remains is to put the effort into the cultivation. Here we focus on the "effort". How to cultivate the garden, you can refer to the specific type of writing we have discussed before.

First, diligence is indispensable.

Let's look at a set of data: Lu Xun wrote and translated nearly 10 million words in his life, lived for 55 years, and had an effective writing time of about 18 years, averaging about 1,500 words per day. Zhang Henshui wrote about 30 million words in his life, writing for more than 50 years, with an average of 1,500 words per day. ; Balzac wrote more than 20 million words in his lifetime, about 30 years of writing time, an average of 1,800 words per day. He wrote four to five novels a year and spent at least 18 hours at his desk every day for 20 years while writing The Human Comedy.

The numbers above are just the number of published works, when in fact there are many more written works, as well as the effort they put into gathering sources, researching sources, revising the novel, etc. These writers, who seem to us as geniuses, are 99% of the sweat behind them, and their achievements are paid for by diligence. The so-called genius writers, but also more than most people have some talent, but they still need the acquired hard work to carry forward the talent.

In writing, hard work may be more important than talent. Llosa, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010, once said, "If you like literature and want to devote your life to it, do it with all your heart. Most writers write not by inspiration but by diligence." So, having chosen writing, you must be prepared to give up something for it.

Second, patience is very important.

Writing is a long marathon, and patience is important. Compared with other industries, the reporting speed of writing is very slow. For most literature lovers, a novel may not be published for several years after it is written, or not many readers will read it after it is published, so patience is very needed at this time. An example I feel deeply, when I first started writing, a lot of people with my writing at the same time, they are all very talented, I also often focus on their work, but after a few years after a lot of people, so I am very sigh with emotion, they may give up because of constantly writing is hard work, and didn't get a lot of recognition. I think I'm very lucky to have been able to do it this far.

A tip to help you stick to it is to set goals for yourself, ranging from long-term goals, such as ten-year writing goals, five-year writing plans, to short-term goals, one-day goals, monthly tasks, etc., which can be detailed. Quantify your writing schedule and set a writing schedule, such as 500 words a day or 50,000 words a month. When the goal is clear, the pressure to implement it will be reduced, and it will stimulate your enthusiasm. This is a virtuous cycle. Don't make excuses for yourself and stop writing.

And you need to enjoy the writing process. Writing is a lonely job, but not to suffer and endure. If writing makes us suffer, and the suffering is not from empathy with the characters, but from the suffering of the writing itself, then it is fair to say that you are not fit to write. Because in my opinion, if you love something, you don't have to suffer. I have been able to write for so many years because writing is one of the most enjoyable things in my life. When writing, you are a god calling the wind and rain, and when you finish writing, you can feel an incomparable sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. Although the process is lonely, but this is born lonely, can live with loneliness peace, is also a kind of success. So, enjoy writing, enjoy being alone.

This lesson we from writing motivation, type selection, three aspects on writing work, discusses the problem of choice in writing, of course, to engage in writing and there are many practical factors to consider, everyone is not the same, I said above, you can serve as a reference, I hope everyone can dream come true.

This is our last lesson. Looking back, can you remember what got you into writing in the first place? One person, one book? You can share your initial impulse.