April 9, 2024 • 20 mins
Before you can master writing great stories, you have to learn to craft great stories.
When I was fifteen, I got my learner’s permit and began learning how to drive a car.
This made me very unhappy.
See, I wanted to know how to drive a car. I didn’t want to learn to drive a car.
Knowing how to drive a car was fun, freeing, and exciting. Learning to drive a car was dangerous, tedious, dangerous, difficult, and also dangerous.
Writers, I find, feel the same way about writing great books.
Writers want to write great books. They don’t want to learn how to write great books.
The stakes aren’t life or death. But the sentiment is the same.
And just like fifteen-year-old me, writers face an uncomfortable truth:
You can’t skip the learning stage of skill development. If you want to write great books, you have to spend time learning to write great books.
In this episode, I’m digging into what it really takes to learn the skill of writing great books—and how to know when you’ve mastered it.
You’ll learn:
- The 2 stages of skill development I see in writers
- Why you just can’t skip the learning stage (no matter how much we all want to!)
- 3 features of the learning stage (yes, features, not bugs!)
- And more!
The amazing book you want to craft is on the other side of the learning stage.
Check out the episode and build the skills that empower you to write it.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Writers would love to be able towrite amazing book after amazing
(00:04):
book after amazing book in thespan of just a few months.
And when you've built up yourskills and you've made it to the
execution stage.
You can do that.
(00:48):
welcome to your next job.
When I was 15 years old, Istarted learning how to drive a
car.
I live in the United States andhere in the us, it becomes legal
to get a learner's permit andstart learning to drive at age
15.
So when I was 15, my mom and Iwent to the DMV.
I took a written test todemonstrate that I'd read the
(01:10):
driver's manual and knew therules of the road.
And then they gave me mylearner's permit.
That means that as long as therewas an adult in the passenger
seat, it was legal for me todrive.
And I remember when I was handedthis little piece of plastic, I
just stood there thinking.
What.
You realize I've never driven acar before, right?
(01:31):
You realize that driving isdangerous and it is not safe for
someone who doesn't know whatthey're doing to go around,
driving a car on roads that haveother people on them.
Oh, hold on.
Have you given this to other 15year olds?
Are you telling me that thereare other literal children out
there who also don't know how todrive, who are driving on these
(01:52):
streets right now?
In short.
I was alarmed.
Shocked appalled.
I looked at other cars waydifferently after that.
With this new question in theback of my mind.
Wait, do you also not know whatyou're doing?
The thing is I did want to drivea car.
I wanted to know how to drive.
(02:14):
I wanted the freedom that comeswith being able to get in the
car whenever I want and takemyself wherever I want to go.
But I did not want to learn todrive a car.
Learning to drive a car.
Mint spending time driving whenI didn't know how to drive yet.
And driving felt like a reallyhigh stakes activity to engage
in when I didn't know what I wasdoing.
(02:37):
I take vehicular safety veryseriously then and now, and I
did not like the reality that Iwas going to be doing an
activity that could causeserious injury or death to
myself and others.
When I wasn't yet good at theactivity and I didn't have the
skill.
The stakes.
Were life or death.
I wanted to know how to drive.
(02:58):
I did not want to learn how todrive.
Unfortunately for me, because wedo not live in the matrix and I
could not simply download thedata on how to fly a helicopter
straight into my brain.
In order to gain the skill ofdriving a car.
I had to pass through thelearning phase.
In order to know how to drive.
I had to spend time.
(03:19):
Uh, learning how to drive.
I find this whole experienceholds pretty true for writers.
No, the big goal for writers,isn't knowing how to drive and
happily the stakes for writersare not life or death.
But writers want to write greatbooks.
They don't want to learn towrite great books.
And they're trapped in the samereality that I was at age 15
(03:42):
when I had a learner's permitand a car to drive and a parent
in the passenger seat and nodriving skills.
In order to have the skill youhave to spend time learning the
skill.
I think of skills in two phases.
There's the learning phase andthere's the execution phase.
In the learning phase, yourwell.
(04:04):
Learning.
You're practicing a skill thatyou don't yet have.
You're experimenting sometimesgetting things, right.
And sometimes getting thingswrong.
You're stretching yourself inways that are unfamiliar to you.
In the execution phase, you'reusing a skill that you have
already built.
You're creating art consistentlyat the level of that skill that
(04:25):
you have mastered the goal hereisn't to gain new skills, but to
make more stuff using yourexisting skills.
This goes for pretty much anyskill, by the way.
It's true of writing anddriving.
It's true of cooking and Olympicski jumping and dog grooming and
dentistry.
When a baker goes to culinaryschool and practices making the
(04:46):
perfect apple pie.
They're in the learning phase.
When they open their own bakeryand they bake 15 apple pies a
day, they're in the executionstage.
The thing about writing is thebarriers to entry are low.
There's no requirement to go twoyears of dental school and then
a residency like you would needto become a dentist.
You don't even need a learner'spermit.
(05:07):
Like I needed when I wasstarting to drive.
And from almost the moment thatwe're born, we spend all of our
lives consuming stories.
So we're absorbing on anintuitive level.
What great storytelling is.
We're not intuitively absorbinghow to do root canals.
We all know that we would haveto go to school to learn that.
(05:28):
But we have an innate sense ofstorytelling that we develop
over years and years ofconsuming the stories all around
us.
So while we all know that inorder to become a dentist or
drive a car, you need tointentionally learn those
skills.
We often miss that in order towrite great novels, we will also
have to go through a learningstage.
(05:51):
First time writers want to writegreat books right off the bat.
More than that they often feellike they should be able to
write great books right off thebat.
They know what great stories areand they have great ideas.
They can just jump right in andcreate amazing novels
themselves.
Right.
Put another way.
First time writers want to jumpstraight to the execution phase.
(06:14):
In fact, I can cut the firsttime part out of that sentence.
Writers want to jump straight tothe execution phase.
Just about every writer thatI've ever met is eager to get to
the execution phase.
And while that's absolutely anexcellent goal.
And it would be a little strangethough, not unheard of, to want
to write a wonderful novelwithout ever wanting to publish
(06:36):
it.
The reality is you just can'tskip the learning phase.
It's not possible to jumpstraight to the execution phase
and produce incredible workright from the start.
You can't execute on skills thatyou haven't built yet.
So, what does this actually looklike for writers?
What does the learning stagelook like?
(06:57):
And what does the executionstage look like?
Let's take an example, writingskill, and then look at what
happens in each stage.
The example skill that I'll pickis seen writing the ability to
write excellent scenes.
If you've been listening to thispodcast for a while, this
probably doesn't come as asurprise.
It's no secret that I lovecrafting amazing scenes.
(07:19):
Great novels are made of aseries of great scenes.
So writing great scenes is askill that every novelist is
going to need to develop.
Great scenes move the storyforward.
They have interesting externalaction.
They keep the readers readingpage after page, they move the
plot forward and they also movethe characters internal arc
(07:39):
forward.
The reader understands why theevents and the scene matters to
the character and how theyimpact that character on an
internal level.
And the reader feels an emotionas they read the scene.
The writer conveys an emotion sopowerfully that the reader feels
it too.
Honestly, we could subdivideeverything that I just said into
(08:00):
a whole list of sub skills thatmake up the skill of writing
great scenes.
But for the purposes of thisexample, we'll just say that the
skill in question is the skillof writing great scenes.
Here's what happens when you'rein the writing?
Great scenes learning stage.
You write a scene.
Maybe when you read what you'vewritten, you think I love this,
(08:21):
or maybe you think.
This is utter garbage.
Where did these words even comefrom?
Surely not for me.
Either way you go test it bysharing it with someone.
And alpha reader or an editor,not with your mom.
Who's going to tell you that youdid a great job and then stick
it on the fridge.
That person will read the scene.
(08:42):
And they'll say some version of.
It's a start.
But it didn't really do anythingfor me.
And you'll know.
Okay.
This scene isn't working yet.
What happens next?
Well, now you have to figure outhow to make this scene work.
So you might come back to thispodcast and listen to a bunch of
scene editing episodes.
(09:03):
You might pick up some craftbooks, you might read some
novels that you love and studythem to see how they did it.
You might take a writing course.
You might join a critique group.
You might hire an editor or abook coach.
Or maybe you just write andrewrite and write and rewrite
and try to figure out how tomake your scenes work.
What will the result be?
(09:24):
Well, assuming that you practicein effective ways that do help
you increase your skill.
The result of all of this workwill be that you get better at
writing scenes.
You will gain the skill ofwriting scenes in a way that you
weren't able to do before.
And you'll probably end up withone scene or a small number of
scenes that work that you'vehoned into really great scenes.
(09:51):
There are a few things that Iwant you to notice about the
learning stage, some features ofthis process.
First.
The learning stage involvesstudy.
Practice and feedback.
One hallmark of the learningstage is that you're trying
something new.
You're probably turning toexperts, whether in novels or
(10:11):
craft books or podcasts, or byhiring an editor or coach to
teach you information that youdon't already know.
You're practicing, iterating ona piece of writing.
And the learning stage isespecially effective.
When you're getting feedback tohelp you determine where you're
doing things effectively.
And where you should trysomething different.
(10:33):
Second.
The learning stage involvesfocusing on one piece of writing
and progressively elevating itsquality.
This might mean that you write adozen versions of one single
scene, rather than giving thatscene one passive editing and
then moving on to the next.
The riches of the learning phasecome from focusing on one thing
(10:54):
deeply, rather than movingquickly from one thing to the
next.
And third, the learning stage isslow.
Going deep on one piece ofwriting takes time.
Editing one scene a dozen timesover takes time.
I've worked with writers whowrite an entire draft of their
(11:14):
novel this way, the writer.
And I both know that they are inthe learning stage and we treat
the draft accordingly.
We take our time on each scene,practicing a few specific skills
until they're present andeffective within that scene.
Before we move on to the nextscene.
I love coaching like this it'sincredibly rewarding and fun for
both me and the writer.
(11:36):
And it's also slow.
It takes a long time to getthrough a draft like this.
That's a feature of this stage,not a bug.
When you take that time, youhave the space that learning
requires.
You're actually able to level upyour skill in ways that aren't
available to you.
When you move fast.
Which brings us to the executionstage.
(11:58):
So you've built the skill ofwriting, great scenes.
You can confidently write ascene and know that it works.
Whew.
You're in the coveted executionstage.
Here's what the execution stagelooks like.
You write a scene.
When you read your scene, youmight see some things in it that
you want to change, but it's sodifferent from that first scene
(12:19):
that you wrote way back in thebeginning of the learning stage.
You're confident that on afundamental level, this scene
works.
Maybe it fits in your book,maybe it doesn't.
Maybe there are ways to make iteven more effective, but as a
scene, it works.
If you hand it to your readersat this stage.
And alpha reader or an editor.
(12:40):
Remember not your mom who can'tbe trusted to give you unbiased
feedback.
Then your readers will enjoy it.
They might have feedback aswell.
But they agree on a fundamentallevel.
This scene works.
What happens next?
You move forward and you writemore scenes, you keep writing
your manuscript scene afterscene, after scene, and they all
(13:01):
work.
They're all crafted using theskills that you developed in the
learning stage.
You can repeat those skills overand over and over and know that
all your scenes are reaching thesame general level of quality.
You can write an, edit a wholebook this way.
You can write an edit multiplebooks this way you can build a
career as an author this way.
(13:24):
What will the result be?
You will complete an entiremanuscript where every scene
reflects your current level ofskill.
as you do, you'll ingrain morefully the skills that you're
executing and it will becomesecond nature.
Assuming that you're satisfiedwith and proud of those skills,
you'll be satisfied with andproud of that manuscript.
(13:45):
You'll publish that book andyou'll start the next book and
you'll continue writing.
Continue publishing, continueexecuting on those skills for as
long as you like.
Just like in the learning stage,there are a few features that I
want to bring to your attentionabout the execution stage.
First the execution stage is notfocused on acquiring new skills,
(14:06):
but applying the skills that youalready have.
In this stage, you won't beseeking out new knowledge, your
focus isn't on reading craftbooks or taking courses or
practicing new skills.
It's possible that you will growas a writer here.
It's possible that your skillswill increase.
But most likely the growth thatyou experienced in this stage
(14:28):
will be incremental And it willmainly be centered on refining
and cementing the skills thatyou already have.
Second.
The execution stage involvescreating a volume of work at the
same level of quality.
We're the learning stage isabout focusing on one scene and
iterating on it over and overand over in order to raise its
(14:49):
quality.
And the execution stage you'refocused on writing many scenes
at the same level of quality.
It's like the baker who opens abakery and sells 15 apple pies a
day that baker isn't concernedabout experimenting with new
spice blends to find theirfavorite amounts of cinnamon for
the perfect apple pie.
They've already done that.
And now they're making lots andlots of apple pies using the
(15:12):
same recipe.
And third.
The execution stage it's fast.
When you can execute a skillconfidently and move forward to
the next thing, you can speed upyour writing process.
The manuscripts you write whenyou're in the execution stage
might take you half the time ofthe manuscripts that you write
in the learning stage.
(15:32):
And the more that you executethe faster you'll get.
There are a lot of things thatare appealing about the
execution stage.
A lot of reasons why writersreally want to jump straight
here.
But this is definitely one ofthe big ones.
Writers would love to be able towrite amazing book after amazing
book after amazing book in thespan of just a few months.
(15:55):
And when you've built up yourskills and you've made it to the
execution stage.
You can do that.
The reality is.
Everyone starts in the learningstage.
No one wants to start in thelearning stage.
We would love to start in theexecution stage.
There are so many skills that Iwould enjoy.
If I could just skip to theexecution stage.
(16:17):
I would play so manyinstruments.
I would dance so many styles ofdance.
I would paint paintings.
I'd cook fabulous meals.
I would knit color work.
I love knitting, but I've alwaysbeen afraid of color work in
knitting.
I would knit so much color work.
But we all start in the learningstage in every skill, in every
area of life.
(16:37):
Writing is no different.
We all start in the learningstage here too.
If you persevere through thelearning stage, eventually you
will make it to the executionstage.
I can drive a car now.
I have a license, not alearner's permit.
And I no longer feel like theDMV made some grave mistake and
allowing me to legally be on theroad.
(17:00):
I can edit novels now, too.
I had my own learning stages andeditor, where I had to practice
skills that I didn't have inorder to be able to give writers
effective feedback that wouldactually make their stories
better.
I was doggedly determined tobecome an editor.
And so I worked hard to getthrough that learning stage and
now I get to execute.
Now I want to add here that itcan be really difficult to tell
(17:23):
when you've passed from thelearning stage to the execution
stage.
After I got my learner's permit,I took driving classes with a
driving instructor, the kind whohas a car with two brake pedals
so that he could stop us in anemergency.
He never had to use the secondbrake pedal with me for the
record.
Then I took the practicaldriving test were an examiner
from the DMV, sat in my car withme while I drove around town and
(17:45):
demonstrated my skills.
And then they gave me mydriver's license.
Even when I got my license,though, I still didn't feel very
secure in my skills.
I still felt like a novicedriver who was still in the
learning stage.
Still trying to practice myskills enough to feel confident
about them.
Still a little appalled that Iwas legally allowed on the road.
(18:06):
I kept practicing.
I kept driving and eventuallymonths or years later, I'm
honestly not sure when Irealized that I had left the
learning stage and I was in theexecution stage.
In fact, I don't think Irecognized that on my own.
I think I realized it whensomeone else told me that I was
a good driver.
The same thing happened to mewith editing.
(18:27):
I knew I was in the practicestage for a long, long time.
Then I started getting reallygreat responses from writers and
encouraging comments from myediting colleagues.
And eventually a long time afterI had crossed that threshold
from learning into execution, Irealized that they were right.
I'm in the execution stage.
Did you catch the clue thattipped me off with both driving
(18:50):
and editing?
Feedback.
I realized that I crossed fromlearning into executing.
When I got positive feedbackfrom people who knew what they
were talking about.
If you're not sure which stageyou're in, I would encourage you
to seek out some feedback.
Choose a piece of your writingthat represents your best work.
Right now, you might focus onone specific skill that you want
(19:12):
to highlight, or you might wantto get a general sense of how
your writing is working as awhole.
Share that piece of writing withsomeone that you trust either a
professional editor or bookcoach.
Or a reader who reads storieslike yours and see how they
respond.
Does your best work receive theresponse that you want?
If so you're probably in theexecution stage.
(19:36):
Does their response, leavesomething to be desired.
Is it not making the impact thatyou hoped it would.
If, so there's probablysomething more for you to learn
in order to be able to createthat effect.
Remember, there's no right orwrong here.
Both learning and execution.
Aren't good or bad.
They're natural, universalstages of skill acquisition.
(19:59):
And the feedback that you get onyour writing is just data.
That you can use to inform yourgoals and your focus and your
writing.
The amazing book that you wantto craft is on the other side of
the learning stage.
I hope that you'll persevere.
And build the skills thatempower you to write it.
(20:19):
Happy editing.
Writers would love to be able towrite amazing book after amazing
(00:04):
book after amazing book in thespan of just a few months.
And when you've built up yourskills and you've made it to the
execution stage.
You can do that.
(00:48):
welcome to your next job.
When I was 15 years old, Istarted learning how to drive a
car.
I live in the United States andhere in the us, it becomes legal
to get a learner's permit andstart learning to drive at age
15.
So when I was 15, my mom and Iwent to the DMV.
I took a written test todemonstrate that I'd read the
(01:10):
driver's manual and knew therules of the road.
And then they gave me mylearner's permit.
That means that as long as therewas an adult in the passenger
seat, it was legal for me todrive.
And I remember when I was handedthis little piece of plastic, I
just stood there thinking.
What.
You realize I've never driven acar before, right?
(01:31):
You realize that driving isdangerous and it is not safe for
someone who doesn't know whatthey're doing to go around,
driving a car on roads that haveother people on them.
Oh, hold on.
Have you given this to other 15year olds?
Are you telling me that thereare other literal children out
there who also don't know how todrive, who are driving on these
(01:52):
streets right now?
In short.
I was alarmed.
Shocked appalled.
I looked at other cars waydifferently after that.
With this new question in theback of my mind.
Wait, do you also not know whatyou're doing?
The thing is I did want to drivea car.
I wanted to know how to drive.
(02:14):
I wanted the freedom that comeswith being able to get in the
car whenever I want and takemyself wherever I want to go.
But I did not want to learn todrive a car.
Learning to drive a car.
Mint spending time driving whenI didn't know how to drive yet.
And driving felt like a reallyhigh stakes activity to engage
in when I didn't know what I wasdoing.
(02:37):
I take vehicular safety veryseriously then and now, and I
did not like the reality that Iwas going to be doing an
activity that could causeserious injury or death to
myself and others.
When I wasn't yet good at theactivity and I didn't have the
skill.
The stakes.
Were life or death.
I wanted to know how to drive.
(02:58):
I did not want to learn how todrive.
Unfortunately for me, because wedo not live in the matrix and I
could not simply download thedata on how to fly a helicopter
straight into my brain.
In order to gain the skill ofdriving a car.
I had to pass through thelearning phase.
In order to know how to drive.
I had to spend time.
(03:19):
Uh, learning how to drive.
I find this whole experienceholds pretty true for writers.
No, the big goal for writers,isn't knowing how to drive and
happily the stakes for writersare not life or death.
But writers want to write greatbooks.
They don't want to learn towrite great books.
And they're trapped in the samereality that I was at age 15
(03:42):
when I had a learner's permitand a car to drive and a parent
in the passenger seat and nodriving skills.
In order to have the skill youhave to spend time learning the
skill.
I think of skills in two phases.
There's the learning phase andthere's the execution phase.
In the learning phase, yourwell.
(04:04):
Learning.
You're practicing a skill thatyou don't yet have.
You're experimenting sometimesgetting things, right.
And sometimes getting thingswrong.
You're stretching yourself inways that are unfamiliar to you.
In the execution phase, you'reusing a skill that you have
already built.
You're creating art consistentlyat the level of that skill that
(04:25):
you have mastered the goal hereisn't to gain new skills, but to
make more stuff using yourexisting skills.
This goes for pretty much anyskill, by the way.
It's true of writing anddriving.
It's true of cooking and Olympicski jumping and dog grooming and
dentistry.
When a baker goes to culinaryschool and practices making the
(04:46):
perfect apple pie.
They're in the learning phase.
When they open their own bakeryand they bake 15 apple pies a
day, they're in the executionstage.
The thing about writing is thebarriers to entry are low.
There's no requirement to go twoyears of dental school and then
a residency like you would needto become a dentist.
You don't even need a learner'spermit.
(05:07):
Like I needed when I wasstarting to drive.
And from almost the moment thatwe're born, we spend all of our
lives consuming stories.
So we're absorbing on anintuitive level.
What great storytelling is.
We're not intuitively absorbinghow to do root canals.
We all know that we would haveto go to school to learn that.
(05:28):
But we have an innate sense ofstorytelling that we develop
over years and years ofconsuming the stories all around
us.
So while we all know that inorder to become a dentist or
drive a car, you need tointentionally learn those
skills.
We often miss that in order towrite great novels, we will also
have to go through a learningstage.
(05:51):
First time writers want to writegreat books right off the bat.
More than that they often feellike they should be able to
write great books right off thebat.
They know what great stories areand they have great ideas.
They can just jump right in andcreate amazing novels
themselves.
Right.
Put another way.
First time writers want to jumpstraight to the execution phase.
(06:14):
In fact, I can cut the firsttime part out of that sentence.
Writers want to jump straight tothe execution phase.
Just about every writer thatI've ever met is eager to get to
the execution phase.
And while that's absolutely anexcellent goal.
And it would be a little strangethough, not unheard of, to want
to write a wonderful novelwithout ever wanting to publish
(06:36):
it.
The reality is you just can'tskip the learning phase.
It's not possible to jumpstraight to the execution phase
and produce incredible workright from the start.
You can't execute on skills thatyou haven't built yet.
So, what does this actually looklike for writers?
What does the learning stagelook like?
(06:57):
And what does the executionstage look like?
Let's take an example, writingskill, and then look at what
happens in each stage.
The example skill that I'll pickis seen writing the ability to
write excellent scenes.
If you've been listening to thispodcast for a while, this
probably doesn't come as asurprise.
It's no secret that I lovecrafting amazing scenes.
(07:19):
Great novels are made of aseries of great scenes.
So writing great scenes is askill that every novelist is
going to need to develop.
Great scenes move the storyforward.
They have interesting externalaction.
They keep the readers readingpage after page, they move the
plot forward and they also movethe characters internal arc
(07:39):
forward.
The reader understands why theevents and the scene matters to
the character and how theyimpact that character on an
internal level.
And the reader feels an emotionas they read the scene.
The writer conveys an emotion sopowerfully that the reader feels
it too.
Honestly, we could subdivideeverything that I just said into
(08:00):
a whole list of sub skills thatmake up the skill of writing
great scenes.
But for the purposes of thisexample, we'll just say that the
skill in question is the skillof writing great scenes.
Here's what happens when you'rein the writing?
Great scenes learning stage.
You write a scene.
Maybe when you read what you'vewritten, you think I love this,
(08:21):
or maybe you think.
This is utter garbage.
Where did these words even comefrom?
Surely not for me.
Either way you go test it bysharing it with someone.
And alpha reader or an editor,not with your mom.
Who's going to tell you that youdid a great job and then stick
it on the fridge.
That person will read the scene.
(08:42):
And they'll say some version of.
It's a start.
But it didn't really do anythingfor me.
And you'll know.
Okay.
This scene isn't working yet.
What happens next?
Well, now you have to figure outhow to make this scene work.
So you might come back to thispodcast and listen to a bunch of
scene editing episodes.
(09:03):
You might pick up some craftbooks, you might read some
novels that you love and studythem to see how they did it.
You might take a writing course.
You might join a critique group.
You might hire an editor or abook coach.
Or maybe you just write andrewrite and write and rewrite
and try to figure out how tomake your scenes work.
What will the result be?
(09:24):
Well, assuming that you practicein effective ways that do help
you increase your skill.
The result of all of this workwill be that you get better at
writing scenes.
You will gain the skill ofwriting scenes in a way that you
weren't able to do before.
And you'll probably end up withone scene or a small number of
scenes that work that you'vehoned into really great scenes.
(09:51):
There are a few things that Iwant you to notice about the
learning stage, some features ofthis process.
First.
The learning stage involvesstudy.
Practice and feedback.
One hallmark of the learningstage is that you're trying
something new.
You're probably turning toexperts, whether in novels or
(10:11):
craft books or podcasts, or byhiring an editor or coach to
teach you information that youdon't already know.
You're practicing, iterating ona piece of writing.
And the learning stage isespecially effective.
When you're getting feedback tohelp you determine where you're
doing things effectively.
And where you should trysomething different.
(10:33):
Second.
The learning stage involvesfocusing on one piece of writing
and progressively elevating itsquality.
This might mean that you write adozen versions of one single
scene, rather than giving thatscene one passive editing and
then moving on to the next.
The riches of the learning phasecome from focusing on one thing
(10:54):
deeply, rather than movingquickly from one thing to the
next.
And third, the learning stage isslow.
Going deep on one piece ofwriting takes time.
Editing one scene a dozen timesover takes time.
I've worked with writers whowrite an entire draft of their
(11:14):
novel this way, the writer.
And I both know that they are inthe learning stage and we treat
the draft accordingly.
We take our time on each scene,practicing a few specific skills
until they're present andeffective within that scene.
Before we move on to the nextscene.
I love coaching like this it'sincredibly rewarding and fun for
both me and the writer.
(11:36):
And it's also slow.
It takes a long time to getthrough a draft like this.
That's a feature of this stage,not a bug.
When you take that time, youhave the space that learning
requires.
You're actually able to level upyour skill in ways that aren't
available to you.
When you move fast.
Which brings us to the executionstage.
(11:58):
So you've built the skill ofwriting, great scenes.
You can confidently write ascene and know that it works.
Whew.
You're in the coveted executionstage.
Here's what the execution stagelooks like.
You write a scene.
When you read your scene, youmight see some things in it that
you want to change, but it's sodifferent from that first scene
(12:19):
that you wrote way back in thebeginning of the learning stage.
You're confident that on afundamental level, this scene
works.
Maybe it fits in your book,maybe it doesn't.
Maybe there are ways to make iteven more effective, but as a
scene, it works.
If you hand it to your readersat this stage.
And alpha reader or an editor.
(12:40):
Remember not your mom who can'tbe trusted to give you unbiased
feedback.
Then your readers will enjoy it.
They might have feedback aswell.
But they agree on a fundamentallevel.
This scene works.
What happens next?
You move forward and you writemore scenes, you keep writing
your manuscript scene afterscene, after scene, and they all
(13:01):
work.
They're all crafted using theskills that you developed in the
learning stage.
You can repeat those skills overand over and over and know that
all your scenes are reaching thesame general level of quality.
You can write an, edit a wholebook this way.
You can write an edit multiplebooks this way you can build a
career as an author this way.
(13:24):
What will the result be?
You will complete an entiremanuscript where every scene
reflects your current level ofskill.
as you do, you'll ingrain morefully the skills that you're
executing and it will becomesecond nature.
Assuming that you're satisfiedwith and proud of those skills,
you'll be satisfied with andproud of that manuscript.
(13:45):
You'll publish that book andyou'll start the next book and
you'll continue writing.
Continue publishing, continueexecuting on those skills for as
long as you like.
Just like in the learning stage,there are a few features that I
want to bring to your attentionabout the execution stage.
First the execution stage is notfocused on acquiring new skills,
(14:06):
but applying the skills that youalready have.
In this stage, you won't beseeking out new knowledge, your
focus isn't on reading craftbooks or taking courses or
practicing new skills.
It's possible that you will growas a writer here.
It's possible that your skillswill increase.
But most likely the growth thatyou experienced in this stage
(14:28):
will be incremental And it willmainly be centered on refining
and cementing the skills thatyou already have.
Second.
The execution stage involvescreating a volume of work at the
same level of quality.
We're the learning stage isabout focusing on one scene and
iterating on it over and overand over in order to raise its
(14:49):
quality.
And the execution stage you'refocused on writing many scenes
at the same level of quality.
It's like the baker who opens abakery and sells 15 apple pies a
day that baker isn't concernedabout experimenting with new
spice blends to find theirfavorite amounts of cinnamon for
the perfect apple pie.
They've already done that.
And now they're making lots andlots of apple pies using the
(15:12):
same recipe.
And third.
The execution stage it's fast.
When you can execute a skillconfidently and move forward to
the next thing, you can speed upyour writing process.
The manuscripts you write whenyou're in the execution stage
might take you half the time ofthe manuscripts that you write
in the learning stage.
(15:32):
And the more that you executethe faster you'll get.
There are a lot of things thatare appealing about the
execution stage.
A lot of reasons why writersreally want to jump straight
here.
But this is definitely one ofthe big ones.
Writers would love to be able towrite amazing book after amazing
book after amazing book in thespan of just a few months.
(15:55):
And when you've built up yourskills and you've made it to the
execution stage.
You can do that.
The reality is.
Everyone starts in the learningstage.
No one wants to start in thelearning stage.
We would love to start in theexecution stage.
There are so many skills that Iwould enjoy.
If I could just skip to theexecution stage.
(16:17):
I would play so manyinstruments.
I would dance so many styles ofdance.
I would paint paintings.
I'd cook fabulous meals.
I would knit color work.
I love knitting, but I've alwaysbeen afraid of color work in
knitting.
I would knit so much color work.
But we all start in the learningstage in every skill, in every
area of life.
(16:37):
Writing is no different.
We all start in the learningstage here too.
If you persevere through thelearning stage, eventually you
will make it to the executionstage.
I can drive a car now.
I have a license, not alearner's permit.
And I no longer feel like theDMV made some grave mistake and
allowing me to legally be on theroad.
(17:00):
I can edit novels now, too.
I had my own learning stages andeditor, where I had to practice
skills that I didn't have inorder to be able to give writers
effective feedback that wouldactually make their stories
better.
I was doggedly determined tobecome an editor.
And so I worked hard to getthrough that learning stage and
now I get to execute.
Now I want to add here that itcan be really difficult to tell
(17:23):
when you've passed from thelearning stage to the execution
stage.
After I got my learner's permit,I took driving classes with a
driving instructor, the kind whohas a car with two brake pedals
so that he could stop us in anemergency.
He never had to use the secondbrake pedal with me for the
record.
Then I took the practicaldriving test were an examiner
from the DMV, sat in my car withme while I drove around town and
(17:45):
demonstrated my skills.
And then they gave me mydriver's license.
Even when I got my license,though, I still didn't feel very
secure in my skills.
I still felt like a novicedriver who was still in the
learning stage.
Still trying to practice myskills enough to feel confident
about them.
Still a little appalled that Iwas legally allowed on the road.
(18:06):
I kept practicing.
I kept driving and eventuallymonths or years later, I'm
honestly not sure when Irealized that I had left the
learning stage and I was in theexecution stage.
In fact, I don't think Irecognized that on my own.
I think I realized it whensomeone else told me that I was
a good driver.
The same thing happened to mewith editing.
(18:27):
I knew I was in the practicestage for a long, long time.
Then I started getting reallygreat responses from writers and
encouraging comments from myediting colleagues.
And eventually a long time afterI had crossed that threshold
from learning into execution, Irealized that they were right.
I'm in the execution stage.
Did you catch the clue thattipped me off with both driving
(18:50):
and editing?
Feedback.
I realized that I crossed fromlearning into executing.
When I got positive feedbackfrom people who knew what they
were talking about.
If you're not sure which stageyou're in, I would encourage you
to seek out some feedback.
Choose a piece of your writingthat represents your best work.
Right now, you might focus onone specific skill that you want
(19:12):
to highlight, or you might wantto get a general sense of how
your writing is working as awhole.
Share that piece of writing withsomeone that you trust either a
professional editor or bookcoach.
Or a reader who reads storieslike yours and see how they
respond.
Does your best work receive theresponse that you want?
If so you're probably in theexecution stage.
(19:36):
Does their response, leavesomething to be desired.
Is it not making the impact thatyou hoped it would.
If, so there's probablysomething more for you to learn
in order to be able to createthat effect.
Remember, there's no right orwrong here.
Both learning and execution.
Aren't good or bad.
They're natural, universalstages of skill acquisition.
(19:59):
And the feedback that you get onyour writing is just data.
That you can use to inform yourgoals and your focus and your
writing.
The amazing book that you wantto craft is on the other side of
the learning stage.
I hope that you'll persevere.
And build the skills thatempower you to write it.
(20:19):
Happy editing.
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