Over the years, as a technical writer, I have been approached many times by people claiming to be passionate about writing. I have a standard response to this – I ask to see their blog. In the blog I look for two things – how they have matured as a writer and how regularly they post. In this blog, I will be addressing the importance of writing regularly.
On an episode of Jimmy Kemmel, Tom Hiddlestone is challenged to cry on cue. Right there, with a comedian in front of him, an audience that is laughing, and a silly cue “Baby Yoda is so cute”, Mr. Hiddlestone tears up. It is an amazing demonstration of being a professional.
Writing to earn an income is very different from writing out of passion. When you earn your living off an activity, it becomes a profession. As a professional, you don’t get to choose when to write or what to write about. That is decided by the person or organization that pays for your skill. It comes with deadlines, rules around style, and constraints around subject.
Most passionate writers cannot write on cue. They need the right mood, the right setting, the right atmosphere, the right weather.
When people come to me asking for a writing job because they have a passion for writing, I give them an exercise. I ask them to write a 300-word essay every morning based on the main headline of the day’s newspaper. They don’t get to choose the topic and they must write every day. I have had only one person even last the week.
Published authors, movie actors, sportspersons – they are professionals. They perform on cue. So do accountants, HR executives, product managers, auditors, technical writers, programmers, and the rest.
To be a professional requires dedication, it demands self-control. It comes from practice. Nobody who is good at anything is ever born complete. They may have a kernel of a skill, but it needs to be developed and sharpened. The skills we so admire are honed through regular practice and by creating a process that allows them to perform at a minimum level of expertise at the drop of a hat.
To be a National Geographic photographer is a dream with many of us who read the magazine. A quick search on the Internet about the life of a Nat Geo photographer will show you that they spend very little time on the glamorous part of the job. The majority of their time is spent arranging travel documents such as visas and airplane tickets. Getting the right documents that allows them to access the areas they want to go to takes up another chunk of time. If you have been to a government office to get permissions to do something, you know how much time is spent just waiting for the person with the necessary authority to give you the permission takes. Then finally you have to wait for your subject to be in the right mood. This could mean sitting on a tree for days on end and to have your subject do exactly what you wanted it to when you came down for a toilet break.
So to anyone who wants to do the thing they are passionate about, my only advice is – practice until you can do it irrespective of the weather, mood, state of health, or deadline. Then and only then can you hope to make a living out of your passion.
If it sounds difficult, let me assure you that it isn’t. It just requires you to bring dedication to your passion. The beginning is always hard because you just haven’t developed the required muscles. But once you push through the first couple of weeks, it gets easier. So much so that you will find topics on which you want to write everywhere. Every experience becomes an article.
The next step is to narrow the focus. Give yourself a broad topic to tackle each month. For instance, you might decide to write about the traffic in your city this month. Next month, you could choose to write about monuments in your city. As you compress the space, you will get better at finding the subject for each article.
When you have done it for three months on the trot, then you know you stand a chance at being a professional writer. That maybe as a novelist, journalist, scriptwriter, technical writer, proposal writer, or any of the other writer roles out there.
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