April 23, 2024 • 18 mins
Write your best stories—and know when to let go and publish them.
In order to write great books, you first have to learn how to write great books.
But when it comes to writing, there’s always something more to learn.
So how do you know when to practice your writing skills—and more importantly, when to publish the stories you’re creating?
That’s what I’m talking about in this episode.
In it, you’ll learn:
- 2 benefits and 1 danger of spending focused time learning new writing skills
- The joy—and risk!—of publishing using the skills you already have
- How to leverage the benefits of both learning and publishing in your writing
- A self-assessment quiz to see what you should focus on next
- And more!
So are you practicing or publishing? There’s no right or wrong answer. It’s just a question of which approach is best for you, right now.
Check out the episode and find out!
Links mentioned in the episode:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
How do you define success forthe book that you're currently
(00:03):
working on?
What's your minimum viable,proud.
What skills do you still need tobuild in order to reach that
point?
And.
Are you actually there now, andit's time to publish.
(00:50):
Welcome to your next draft.
In the last episode, I told youthe story of when I learned to
drive at age 15, when I washorrified to discover that the
DMV will just hand out learner'spermits to children whose only
qualifications are that theypass a written test to prove
that they know what stop signsmean.
(01:11):
Really that episode was aboutwhat it takes to acquire and
then use a new skill that is ashared experience for all
humans.
Whether you're a 15 year oldlearning to drive or a 40 year
old learning to write a novel.
Happily writing novels does nottend to have a life or death
stakes.
At least not for the writer.
(01:32):
The characters might not be solucky.
Anyway, the point is that Ithink of skills in terms of two
stages, the learning stage andthe execution stage.
In the learning stage, you'repracticing a skill that you
don't yet have.
You're experimenting sometimesgetting things, right.
And sometimes getting thingswrong.
You're stretching yourself inways that are unfamiliar to you.
(01:56):
In the execution stage, you'reusing a skill that you've
already built.
You're creating art consistentlyat the level of skill that you
have mastered.
The goal here is not to gain newskills, but to make more stuff
using your existing skills.
And as much as we would all loveto skip the learning stage and
go straight into executing everyskill we ever dream of.
(02:19):
The reality is that we can't.
We all start in the learningstage.
And if we persevere through thelearning, we make it to
execution.
If you haven't listened to thatepisode, I highly recommend
going back to it.
Once you finish this one.
I've just recapped the corepoints.
But in that episode, I go into alot of detail about what each
stage looks like and how tofigure out which stage you're
(02:40):
in.
So go listen to that episode, bygoing to Alice subtler.
so.com/ 68.
And of course that link is inthe show notes as well.
There's something that I didn'ttell you in that episode,
though, And that is what we getto dig into today.
Here's the thing.
When I say learning stage andexecution stage, those sounds
super clear.
(03:01):
Cut.
Like you started the learningstage, spend a while,
intentionally building skillsand then pass through into the
glories of the execution stage.
Where you get to whip up bookafter book, after book and land
on bestseller lists to the grandapplause of a raving audience of
readers.
But that's not exactly how theywork.
The truth is there's always moreto learn.
(03:25):
If writing is an ocean, theocean is deep.
There are always more depths toplum.
There are always more skills toacquire.
So the execution stage, isn't somuch an end point where you've
acquired all the skills and nowyou're done learning.
It's more of a, waystation aplace to rest and celebrate what
you've gained until you decidethat you would like to press
(03:46):
forward into more learning.
I'm mixing all the metaphorshere.
I know.
And I'm probably going to mix inmore.
I would apologize, but I'm notreally sorry.
We can all live with someslightly chaotic imagery.
Let's get back to 15 year old,me learning to drive.
The skill that I built when Iwas learning to drive was the
skill of driving an automaticcar around the cities and
(04:08):
interstates.
If the United States.
And I did it.
I gained the skill.
I'm in the execution stage.
I do that kind of driving a lot.
But that does not mean that Ihave reached the end point of
driving skills.
There are so many more skillsthat I could learn.
If I wanted to, here are just afew.
Driving a race car.
(04:28):
That seems like it would bevery, very different from
driving my camera along thehighway.
Driving a semi-truck again.
This is different from a Camry.
Driving a stick shift.
I learned to drive automaticcars.
I am not in the execution stagefor manual cars.
If you put me in a manual car,we're not going anywhere.
(04:48):
Driving on the left side of theroad.
I've never lived anywhere wherethey drive on the left side of
the road.
So I've never needed to learn.
Driving in countries outside ofthe U S.
I know American traffic rules.
I don't know traffic rules forany other country.
And some countries have sometraffic rules that kind of scare
me.
These are all skills that I donot have.
(05:10):
I could gain them if I wantedto, in order to do that, I would
have to go back to the learningstage of driving.
And as we discussed in theprevious episode, I really did
not like the learning stage ofdriving a car.
I found it incredibly stressfuland alarming.
And also at this point in mylife, I don't want or need any
of these driving skills.
(05:30):
So I choose to stay in theexecution stage with the skills
that I have, which get me safelyaround my city and around the U
S and I don't add on moredriving skills.
The learning and executionstages of writing are the same.
There are always going to bemore skills to learn.
I mean.
Have you figured out how towrite a book in third person,
(05:52):
omniscient point of view, withmultiple points of view
characters and multipletimelines.
No.
Then there are still skillsavailable for you to learn.
And just like, I get to decidewhen I am satisfied with my
current set of driving skills.
And when I want to learn todrive stick, you get to decide
when you're satisfied with yourcurrent writing skills.
And when you want to level up.
(06:14):
At any given moment for anygiven book, you can choose
whether you want to be in thelearning stage or the execution
stage.
You can change stages from bookto book, you can change stages
from draft to draft.
You can even change stagesmidway through a draft.
Although I do think that there'sa lot of benefit to finishing an
entire draft in one stage.
At any point you can choose toslow down.
(06:37):
Be more methodical and iterativeand challenge yourself to
explore new layers of skill thatyou haven't tried before.
And at any point you can chooseto speed up and focus on
executing the skills that youalready have.
You get to flow betweenexecution and learning as much
as you like through your entireauthor career.
(06:58):
It's powerful stuff, right?
The ability to choose whetheryou want to add more skills or
create more stories using theskills you already have.
And the ability to flow betweenthese two stages, as much as you
like at any point.
And it begs the question.
How do you choose which stageyou want to be in?
What are the benefits anddrawbacks of each stage and how
(07:20):
should you pick.
Let's talk about it.
First step.
Let's look at the benefits ofthe learning stage.
I love this stage and I lovethese benefits.
There are probably a lot ofbenefits to this stage, but
there are two in particular thatI want to highlight.
Here's the first benefit.
When you're in the learningstage, you are raising the
ceiling on what it is possiblefor you to create.
(07:43):
You're acquiring more skill.
You're opening up morepossibilities.
And as a result, you're becomingmore and more capable of
tackling bigger, more ambitiousprojects.
When you spend time in thelearning stage, you build the
skills that you need to tacklethe ambitious projects that you
dream of.
And the second benefit is this.
(08:05):
Learning skills makes peoplehappy.
Building a skill is rewardingfor its own sake.
Just the act of learningsomething new makes us happy.
If you want to be happy, why notspend some time learning a
writing skill that you haven'tyet mastered And that you find
really exciting and interesting.
That's it, there is one majorrisk of the learning stage that
(08:27):
is important to watch out forhere.
It is.
It is possible to get stuck inthe learning stage and never
publish.
There is always more to learnalways.
And as a perfectionist myself, Iam tempted to want to learn
everything before I do anything.
For writers, this looks likecontinuing to build your skills
(08:48):
and edit your manuscript throughrevision after revision, after
revision and never letting go topublish it.
How do you press through thesegmentation and push yourself
to publish?
The key is to get really, reallyclear on what success means to
you.
You can start with what successmeans to you in general for your
(09:09):
author career as a whole, butthen get more specific, really
specific about the specific bookyou're working on right now.
What does success mean for thisbook?
How will you measure it?
How will you know that you'veachieved it?
Kim Kessler, my editor friend,who's made a couple appearances
on this podcast, likes to callthis minimum viable, proud.
(09:31):
What's the minimum that you needto accomplish in order to be
proud of this book that you'recreating.
Defining this for yourself isliberating.
It means that you don't need togain every writing skill in
order to publish your book.
All you need to do is get thisbook to the level of minimum
viable, proud.
And then you get to publish andshare it with the world.
(09:55):
Which brings us to the executionstage.
And as you might guess, thebenefits and drawbacks here are
the reverse of those in thelearning stage.
Here's the major benefit of theexecution stage.
You get to publish.
Yep.
This is the stage where you getto publish stuff.
You get to publish more booksmore frequently.
You get to share your writingwith the world and build your
(10:18):
audience of readers who loveyour stories.
You get to experience all theexternal rewards of an author
career.
Mainly having people read yourstories and love them as much as
you do.
The happiness of skill-buildingis an internal personal kind of
happiness.
The happiness of publishing isan external public kind of
(10:38):
happiness.
They're both wonderfulhappinesses but they're matched
with different stages.
That said there is of course, adanger to the execution stage as
well.
I want to, perhaps not a danger,but certainly a limitation here.
It is.
The ceiling on what you are ableto create.
Is relatively fixed.
(10:59):
All the stories that you writeare going to match your current
skill level.
This is great.
As long as you love what you'recreating.
But it's possible that as youwrite more books, you'll start
envisioning increasinglyambitious stories, stories that
require skills that you haven'tmastered yet.
Or maybe you won't beenvisioning necessarily more
(11:20):
ambitious or complex stories,but you'll be exploring stories
in different genres or storiesthat tackle different.
tropes or elements that youhaven't played with before.
And if you try to tackle thosein the execution stage, you
might find the experiencedifficult or frustrating, or
even discouraging.
When you're used to executingrelatively easily, it can be
(11:41):
jarring to encounter a storythat you can't execute easily.
A story that stretches youbeyond your current limits.
So what's the solution.
How do you balance the funcreative flow of the execution
stage and the invitation toadvance your skill?
Well, for as long as you lovecreating at your current level
(12:02):
of skill, keep doing it.
If you're telling the storiesthat you want to tell, you're
getting the responses fromreaders that you want to get,
and you're having fun in theprocess.
There's absolutely no problemhere.
Keep doing what you're doing andenjoy it.
And if, or when you come acrossa project that you're passionate
about and you discover that it'sgoing to require a higher level
(12:23):
of skill in order to do itjustice.
Be open to shifting back intothe learning stage.
Remember that there's nojudgment here on learning versus
execution.
Both of these stages are simplyuniversal stages of skill
development.
One isn't better than the other.
Shifting back into the learningstage is going to involve
slowing down, studying, tryingnew things and probably failing
(12:47):
a bit before you succeed.
But the result will be thatyou'll raise the ceiling on what
you can execute.
So when you shift back into theexecution stage, you'll be even
more capable of even moreambitious stories.
Plus learning is its own reward.
Honestly, as an editor and bookcoach, I absolutely love working
with writers who have spent along time in the learning stage,
(13:10):
shifted into the execution stageand produced some books they're
proud of and are open toshifting back into the learning
stage to take their skills evenhigher, or explore something
new.
Some of my best clients are theones who are super open to this
flow of shifting back and forthbetween the learning and
execution stages.
They come to me with anestablished set of skills that
(13:30):
they know how to execute well.
That means that a lot of thetime, when I give them editorial
notes, they can take them in andexecute them quickly because
we're treading on familiarterritory.
And then when we spot anopportunity for them to stretch
their skills and grow, they'rereally excited to take it and
build even more skills.
And I get to share what I knowand push us both to expand and
(13:51):
grow.
These kinds of projects oftenstretch me too and make me a
better editor as we go.
I say all this, because at thebeginning of the last podcast
episode, I told you what I seemost often.
Writers want to execute.
We want to be in the executionstage with all of our skills.
That's where we feelcomfortable.
(14:12):
That's where we feel confident.
And that's where we get toproduce and publish books fast.
But I want to encourage you toget comfortable with the
learning stage two.
And give yourself and yourwriting space to shift back and
forth between these two stages.
Personally, I think that's whereyou'll find the greatest reward.
So here's your invitation.
(14:33):
I invite you to take a fewminutes for a self-assessment.
Think through the whole of yourwriting career from the first
day you ever picked up a penciland sat down to write a story.
At what points in your writingcareer have you been in a
learning stage?
At what points in your careerhave you been in an execution
stage?
How long do you tend to spend ineach of those stages?
(14:56):
Which stage do you feel morecomfortable in.
You might find that you'veactually spent most or all of
your time in one stage ratherthan the other.
Maybe you've been all executionpublishing book after book,
without giving yourself time andspace to go deep in your
writing.
Or maybe you've been alllearning, working on one single
manuscript for years withoutever letting go to publish.
(15:19):
If you've never been in anintentional learning stage.
Ask yourself.
Are there writing skills thatyou would like to develop?
And what could be possible foryour writing if you slowed down
and did another pass or two onthe project that you're
currently working on.
If you've never been in theexecution stage.
Ask yourself.
How do you define success forthe book that you're currently
(15:42):
working on?
What's your minimum viable,proud.
What skills do you still need tobuild in order to reach that
point?
And.
Are you actually there now, andit's time to publish.
If you've been in the learningstage for a long time and you're
having trouble gaging, whetheryour writing is ready to
publish, this is a great time toget outside eyes on it.
(16:05):
You could hire a professional orget feedback for free.
Uh, developmental editor will beable to tell you exactly what
skills are working in yourwriting and what skills are
worth focusing on right nowbefore you publish.
And beta readers can give youdata on how your book lands with
people who enjoy books likeyours.
Their role isn't to identifywhich skills that you need to
develop, But they are stand-insfor your ideal readers and from
(16:27):
their feedback, you'll be ableto see whether your book is
getting the response you want orwhether it's not getting the
response you want.
And you want to keep working onit before you publish.
And if you're in the executionstage, feedback is helpful for
you too.
You're probably already gettingfeedback from real actual
readers who have purchased andread your books.
Are they responding in the waysthat you want them to respond or
(16:50):
is there something not quiteworking?
And if you didn't know how toanswer the question about what
could be possible for yourwriting, if you gave your
current project, another pass ortwo, you might like to get
feedback from a developmentaleditor.
An editor can point out what'sworking really well.
And what skills you mightconsider building next, whether
that's to enhance what you'recurrently doing, or to allow you
(17:10):
to expand into new projects.
No matter what you learn in thatself-assessment though at its
heart.
My invitation is this.
Get comfy with the flow.
Get comfy shifting from thelearning stage to the execution
stage and back again.
The ocean is deep.
There are depths to your writingthat you haven't yet plumped
(17:31):
Spend some time diving into thelearning stage.
Then come back to the executionstage and publish some books,
using all those skills thatyou've gained.
Take a rest of this.
Waystation in our messy mixedmetaphor.
And when you're ready.
Dive back into the ocean anddiscover what more you can
learn.
Publishing your books is awonderful reward.
(17:54):
And learning new skills is awonderful reward too.
Happy editing.
How do you define success forthe book that you're currently
(00:03):
working on?
What's your minimum viable,proud.
What skills do you still need tobuild in order to reach that
point?
And.
Are you actually there now, andit's time to publish.
(00:50):
Welcome to your next draft.
In the last episode, I told youthe story of when I learned to
drive at age 15, when I washorrified to discover that the
DMV will just hand out learner'spermits to children whose only
qualifications are that theypass a written test to prove
that they know what stop signsmean.
(01:11):
Really that episode was aboutwhat it takes to acquire and
then use a new skill that is ashared experience for all
humans.
Whether you're a 15 year oldlearning to drive or a 40 year
old learning to write a novel.
Happily writing novels does nottend to have a life or death
stakes.
At least not for the writer.
(01:32):
The characters might not be solucky.
Anyway, the point is that Ithink of skills in terms of two
stages, the learning stage andthe execution stage.
In the learning stage, you'repracticing a skill that you
don't yet have.
You're experimenting sometimesgetting things, right.
And sometimes getting thingswrong.
You're stretching yourself inways that are unfamiliar to you.
(01:56):
In the execution stage, you'reusing a skill that you've
already built.
You're creating art consistentlyat the level of skill that you
have mastered.
The goal here is not to gain newskills, but to make more stuff
using your existing skills.
And as much as we would all loveto skip the learning stage and
go straight into executing everyskill we ever dream of.
(02:19):
The reality is that we can't.
We all start in the learningstage.
And if we persevere through thelearning, we make it to
execution.
If you haven't listened to thatepisode, I highly recommend
going back to it.
Once you finish this one.
I've just recapped the corepoints.
But in that episode, I go into alot of detail about what each
stage looks like and how tofigure out which stage you're
(02:40):
in.
So go listen to that episode, bygoing to Alice subtler.
so.com/ 68.
And of course that link is inthe show notes as well.
There's something that I didn'ttell you in that episode,
though, And that is what we getto dig into today.
Here's the thing.
When I say learning stage andexecution stage, those sounds
super clear.
(03:01):
Cut.
Like you started the learningstage, spend a while,
intentionally building skillsand then pass through into the
glories of the execution stage.
Where you get to whip up bookafter book, after book and land
on bestseller lists to the grandapplause of a raving audience of
readers.
But that's not exactly how theywork.
The truth is there's always moreto learn.
(03:25):
If writing is an ocean, theocean is deep.
There are always more depths toplum.
There are always more skills toacquire.
So the execution stage, isn't somuch an end point where you've
acquired all the skills and nowyou're done learning.
It's more of a, waystation aplace to rest and celebrate what
you've gained until you decidethat you would like to press
(03:46):
forward into more learning.
I'm mixing all the metaphorshere.
I know.
And I'm probably going to mix inmore.
I would apologize, but I'm notreally sorry.
We can all live with someslightly chaotic imagery.
Let's get back to 15 year old,me learning to drive.
The skill that I built when Iwas learning to drive was the
skill of driving an automaticcar around the cities and
(04:08):
interstates.
If the United States.
And I did it.
I gained the skill.
I'm in the execution stage.
I do that kind of driving a lot.
But that does not mean that Ihave reached the end point of
driving skills.
There are so many more skillsthat I could learn.
If I wanted to, here are just afew.
Driving a race car.
(04:28):
That seems like it would bevery, very different from
driving my camera along thehighway.
Driving a semi-truck again.
This is different from a Camry.
Driving a stick shift.
I learned to drive automaticcars.
I am not in the execution stagefor manual cars.
If you put me in a manual car,we're not going anywhere.
(04:48):
Driving on the left side of theroad.
I've never lived anywhere wherethey drive on the left side of
the road.
So I've never needed to learn.
Driving in countries outside ofthe U S.
I know American traffic rules.
I don't know traffic rules forany other country.
And some countries have sometraffic rules that kind of scare
me.
These are all skills that I donot have.
(05:10):
I could gain them if I wantedto, in order to do that, I would
have to go back to the learningstage of driving.
And as we discussed in theprevious episode, I really did
not like the learning stage ofdriving a car.
I found it incredibly stressfuland alarming.
And also at this point in mylife, I don't want or need any
of these driving skills.
(05:30):
So I choose to stay in theexecution stage with the skills
that I have, which get me safelyaround my city and around the U
S and I don't add on moredriving skills.
The learning and executionstages of writing are the same.
There are always going to bemore skills to learn.
I mean.
Have you figured out how towrite a book in third person,
(05:52):
omniscient point of view, withmultiple points of view
characters and multipletimelines.
No.
Then there are still skillsavailable for you to learn.
And just like, I get to decidewhen I am satisfied with my
current set of driving skills.
And when I want to learn todrive stick, you get to decide
when you're satisfied with yourcurrent writing skills.
And when you want to level up.
(06:14):
At any given moment for anygiven book, you can choose
whether you want to be in thelearning stage or the execution
stage.
You can change stages from bookto book, you can change stages
from draft to draft.
You can even change stagesmidway through a draft.
Although I do think that there'sa lot of benefit to finishing an
entire draft in one stage.
At any point you can choose toslow down.
(06:37):
Be more methodical and iterativeand challenge yourself to
explore new layers of skill thatyou haven't tried before.
And at any point you can chooseto speed up and focus on
executing the skills that youalready have.
You get to flow betweenexecution and learning as much
as you like through your entireauthor career.
(06:58):
It's powerful stuff, right?
The ability to choose whetheryou want to add more skills or
create more stories using theskills you already have.
And the ability to flow betweenthese two stages, as much as you
like at any point.
And it begs the question.
How do you choose which stageyou want to be in?
What are the benefits anddrawbacks of each stage and how
(07:20):
should you pick.
Let's talk about it.
First step.
Let's look at the benefits ofthe learning stage.
I love this stage and I lovethese benefits.
There are probably a lot ofbenefits to this stage, but
there are two in particular thatI want to highlight.
Here's the first benefit.
When you're in the learningstage, you are raising the
ceiling on what it is possiblefor you to create.
(07:43):
You're acquiring more skill.
You're opening up morepossibilities.
And as a result, you're becomingmore and more capable of
tackling bigger, more ambitiousprojects.
When you spend time in thelearning stage, you build the
skills that you need to tacklethe ambitious projects that you
dream of.
And the second benefit is this.
(08:05):
Learning skills makes peoplehappy.
Building a skill is rewardingfor its own sake.
Just the act of learningsomething new makes us happy.
If you want to be happy, why notspend some time learning a
writing skill that you haven'tyet mastered And that you find
really exciting and interesting.
That's it, there is one majorrisk of the learning stage that
(08:27):
is important to watch out forhere.
It is.
It is possible to get stuck inthe learning stage and never
publish.
There is always more to learnalways.
And as a perfectionist myself, Iam tempted to want to learn
everything before I do anything.
For writers, this looks likecontinuing to build your skills
(08:48):
and edit your manuscript throughrevision after revision, after
revision and never letting go topublish it.
How do you press through thesegmentation and push yourself
to publish?
The key is to get really, reallyclear on what success means to
you.
You can start with what successmeans to you in general for your
(09:09):
author career as a whole, butthen get more specific, really
specific about the specific bookyou're working on right now.
What does success mean for thisbook?
How will you measure it?
How will you know that you'veachieved it?
Kim Kessler, my editor friend,who's made a couple appearances
on this podcast, likes to callthis minimum viable, proud.
(09:31):
What's the minimum that you needto accomplish in order to be
proud of this book that you'recreating.
Defining this for yourself isliberating.
It means that you don't need togain every writing skill in
order to publish your book.
All you need to do is get thisbook to the level of minimum
viable, proud.
And then you get to publish andshare it with the world.
(09:55):
Which brings us to the executionstage.
And as you might guess, thebenefits and drawbacks here are
the reverse of those in thelearning stage.
Here's the major benefit of theexecution stage.
You get to publish.
Yep.
This is the stage where you getto publish stuff.
You get to publish more booksmore frequently.
You get to share your writingwith the world and build your
(10:18):
audience of readers who loveyour stories.
You get to experience all theexternal rewards of an author
career.
Mainly having people read yourstories and love them as much as
you do.
The happiness of skill-buildingis an internal personal kind of
happiness.
The happiness of publishing isan external public kind of
(10:38):
happiness.
They're both wonderfulhappinesses but they're matched
with different stages.
That said there is of course, adanger to the execution stage as
well.
I want to, perhaps not a danger,but certainly a limitation here.
It is.
The ceiling on what you are ableto create.
Is relatively fixed.
(10:59):
All the stories that you writeare going to match your current
skill level.
This is great.
As long as you love what you'recreating.
But it's possible that as youwrite more books, you'll start
envisioning increasinglyambitious stories, stories that
require skills that you haven'tmastered yet.
Or maybe you won't beenvisioning necessarily more
(11:20):
ambitious or complex stories,but you'll be exploring stories
in different genres or storiesthat tackle different.
tropes or elements that youhaven't played with before.
And if you try to tackle thosein the execution stage, you
might find the experiencedifficult or frustrating, or
even discouraging.
When you're used to executingrelatively easily, it can be
(11:41):
jarring to encounter a storythat you can't execute easily.
A story that stretches youbeyond your current limits.
So what's the solution.
How do you balance the funcreative flow of the execution
stage and the invitation toadvance your skill?
Well, for as long as you lovecreating at your current level
(12:02):
of skill, keep doing it.
If you're telling the storiesthat you want to tell, you're
getting the responses fromreaders that you want to get,
and you're having fun in theprocess.
There's absolutely no problemhere.
Keep doing what you're doing andenjoy it.
And if, or when you come acrossa project that you're passionate
about and you discover that it'sgoing to require a higher level
(12:23):
of skill in order to do itjustice.
Be open to shifting back intothe learning stage.
Remember that there's nojudgment here on learning versus
execution.
Both of these stages are simplyuniversal stages of skill
development.
One isn't better than the other.
Shifting back into the learningstage is going to involve
slowing down, studying, tryingnew things and probably failing
(12:47):
a bit before you succeed.
But the result will be thatyou'll raise the ceiling on what
you can execute.
So when you shift back into theexecution stage, you'll be even
more capable of even moreambitious stories.
Plus learning is its own reward.
Honestly, as an editor and bookcoach, I absolutely love working
with writers who have spent along time in the learning stage,
(13:10):
shifted into the execution stageand produced some books they're
proud of and are open toshifting back into the learning
stage to take their skills evenhigher, or explore something
new.
Some of my best clients are theones who are super open to this
flow of shifting back and forthbetween the learning and
execution stages.
They come to me with anestablished set of skills that
(13:30):
they know how to execute well.
That means that a lot of thetime, when I give them editorial
notes, they can take them in andexecute them quickly because
we're treading on familiarterritory.
And then when we spot anopportunity for them to stretch
their skills and grow, they'rereally excited to take it and
build even more skills.
And I get to share what I knowand push us both to expand and
(13:51):
grow.
These kinds of projects oftenstretch me too and make me a
better editor as we go.
I say all this, because at thebeginning of the last podcast
episode, I told you what I seemost often.
Writers want to execute.
We want to be in the executionstage with all of our skills.
That's where we feelcomfortable.
(14:12):
That's where we feel confident.
And that's where we get toproduce and publish books fast.
But I want to encourage you toget comfortable with the
learning stage two.
And give yourself and yourwriting space to shift back and
forth between these two stages.
Personally, I think that's whereyou'll find the greatest reward.
So here's your invitation.
(14:33):
I invite you to take a fewminutes for a self-assessment.
Think through the whole of yourwriting career from the first
day you ever picked up a penciland sat down to write a story.
At what points in your writingcareer have you been in a
learning stage?
At what points in your careerhave you been in an execution
stage?
How long do you tend to spend ineach of those stages?
(14:56):
Which stage do you feel morecomfortable in.
You might find that you'veactually spent most or all of
your time in one stage ratherthan the other.
Maybe you've been all executionpublishing book after book,
without giving yourself time andspace to go deep in your
writing.
Or maybe you've been alllearning, working on one single
manuscript for years withoutever letting go to publish.
(15:19):
If you've never been in anintentional learning stage.
Ask yourself.
Are there writing skills thatyou would like to develop?
And what could be possible foryour writing if you slowed down
and did another pass or two onthe project that you're
currently working on.
If you've never been in theexecution stage.
Ask yourself.
How do you define success forthe book that you're currently
(15:42):
working on?
What's your minimum viable,proud.
What skills do you still need tobuild in order to reach that
point?
And.
Are you actually there now, andit's time to publish.
If you've been in the learningstage for a long time and you're
having trouble gaging, whetheryour writing is ready to
publish, this is a great time toget outside eyes on it.
(16:05):
You could hire a professional orget feedback for free.
Uh, developmental editor will beable to tell you exactly what
skills are working in yourwriting and what skills are
worth focusing on right nowbefore you publish.
And beta readers can give youdata on how your book lands with
people who enjoy books likeyours.
Their role isn't to identifywhich skills that you need to
develop, But they are stand-insfor your ideal readers and from
(16:27):
their feedback, you'll be ableto see whether your book is
getting the response you want orwhether it's not getting the
response you want.
And you want to keep working onit before you publish.
And if you're in the executionstage, feedback is helpful for
you too.
You're probably already gettingfeedback from real actual
readers who have purchased andread your books.
Are they responding in the waysthat you want them to respond or
(16:50):
is there something not quiteworking?
And if you didn't know how toanswer the question about what
could be possible for yourwriting, if you gave your
current project, another pass ortwo, you might like to get
feedback from a developmentaleditor.
An editor can point out what'sworking really well.
And what skills you mightconsider building next, whether
that's to enhance what you'recurrently doing, or to allow you
(17:10):
to expand into new projects.
No matter what you learn in thatself-assessment though at its
heart.
My invitation is this.
Get comfy with the flow.
Get comfy shifting from thelearning stage to the execution
stage and back again.
The ocean is deep.
There are depths to your writingthat you haven't yet plumped
(17:31):
Spend some time diving into thelearning stage.
Then come back to the executionstage and publish some books,
using all those skills thatyou've gained.
Take a rest of this.
Waystation in our messy mixedmetaphor.
And when you're ready.
Dive back into the ocean anddiscover what more you can
learn.
Publishing your books is awonderful reward.
(17:54):
And learning new skills is awonderful reward too.
Happy editing.
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