EDITOR’S NOTE: With the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, happening now, I’m running a slightly updated version of this post, which originally ran during the 2012 London Olympics.
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If you’re like me, you’ve probably spent part of the past few days watching the #Sochi games and wondering how it’s possible for the human body to spin, flip, fly or move so fast.
Olympic athletes such as slopestyle gold medal winner Jamie Anderson or record-breaking ice dancing partners Meryl Davis and Charlie White weren’t born that way. With the rare exception, it takes years, maybe even decades, to reach their level of achievement – something spectators like you and me understand almost intuitively.
Yet when it comes to our work as writers, we expect to come out of the gate a Susan Orlean or Seymour Hersh.
Writing, like sports, isn’t like that. To attain such a high level of mastery takes time and effort. While it might not take the 10,000 hours Malcolm Gladwell says it does in Outliers, it’s not something you can start out at and be perfect right away.
Train Like a Champion
Good writing takes hard work. To be a high-caliber writer takes high-caliber work. Here’s how to train like Olympic athletes:
1. Specialize.
You don’t see Galen Rupp running the 100 meter dash. Rupp is a champion because he’s devoted his life to being great middle-distance runner. That devotion got him qualified to represent the USA in the 5,000 meters and 10,000 at the 2012 London Olympics.
To get good at something specialize. If you want to be a business reporter, pitch and take assignments to write business stories. If you want to be a copywriter, actively seek out copywriting opportunities. Ditto for any other niche writing market.
2. Find a coach.
Watch the highly rated Olympic men’s gymnastics team before and after they vault or do their floor routine. There’s always a coach there to encourage them before they’re on and critique them once they’re done.
Writers need coaches too. You could hire a coach, but you don’t have to. Coaching could come from attending a writer’s workshop, reading books on the craft, or putting some really good writing blogs on your RSS reader (including this one, hopefully).
3. Practice.
Olympic athletes are in the spotlight once every four years, but they practice constantly. Practice is why Lochte was able to outswim Michael Phelps to win a gold medal in the men’s 400 IM. To train for the London Games, according to Oregonian sports columnist John Canzano, Lochte flipped “850-pound tires down a road as part of his training. He dragged a 535-pound boat chain around his trainer’s garage, and tossed beer kegs to increase his strength and stamina.”
Practicing writing is a little easier than tossing beer kegs – although getting a reluctant interviewee to open up sometimes feels like it. The best practice for writers is writing. If assignments aren’t pouring in, aim your writing energies at query letters, keeping a journal, blogging or taking a writing class – anything that helps sharpen your skills.
4. Use the right equipment.
Ashton Eaton didn’t break the decathlon world record at the U.S. track and field trials the month before the 2012 London game using any old pole vault. He used a pole and cleats specifically tuned to the conditions on the track that day.
To get the most out of their work, writers need equipment that’s tuned to their special needs too: a laptop that has enough oomph to be a main workstation yet is light enough to take on the road, a telephone headset and Skype, a smartphone with a built-in camera, software for making podcasts.
5. Surround yourself with like-minded professionals.
Members of the U.S. Ski Team who are in Sochi for the Olympics, also compete in World Cup events with athletes from Europe and elsewhere. Skiiers travel, live, train, and race side by side.
Rubbing shoulders with other professional writers could be hard if you’re naturally competitive by nature. You might not want to share too much with writers who could potentially take work away from you. But the reality is, there’s no way you can write all the stories there are to write about topics you cover. Why not accept that and spread the wealth? Good karma has a way of finding its way back to you.
6. Visualize greatness.
Olympic athletes train mentally as well as physically, picturing themselves performing at their peak. You could see that on Sunday when NBC showed ice dancers Davis and White sitting outside the rink before it was their turn to skate, arms twisting and heads bobbing they mentally practiced their routine. You could see it in slopestyle contestants as they stood at the starting gate, rehearsing the arm motions they would use to execute a perfect 1620.
When I was 15 my parents sent me to a seminar led by a local high-school football coach whose specialty was teaching athletes how to visual success. Over two days we learned about affirmations and how to use positive mental imagery to picture ourselves doing whatever it was we wanted to do. Sounds hokey but it works, especially the visualization.
I’ve continued to use some of the techniques up to this day. If you think of yourself as a successfully employed freelance writer, you will be. That doesn’t mean that all you have to do is think about it. You have to do the things that will make you successful – the querying, interviews, writing, and rewriting.
By picturing yourself as successful you won’t be mentally sabotaging everything else you’re doing to get there. When you’ve got that big interview or have a call with an editor at your dream magazine you’ll be calm, cool and collected because you’ve been there before, in your head.
[Flickr photo by Atos International]
Great stuff, Michelle. I especially appreciate and agree with your remark about karma. That awareness is catching on, and it may be the best side-effect of Web 2.0.
Here’s how I know we’re NOT, as you say, J.D. Salinger. This from the NY Times obit you link to:
“There is a marvelous peace in not publishing. It’s peaceful. Still. Publishing is a terrible invasion of my privacy. I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure.”
Robert: Thank you for the comment, your email, introducing yourself, and pointing that snippet from his obit out to me. Ah, to have the luxury to write but not publish. Hopefully he did a lot of it, and his family will share it all with the rest of us one day. Until then, I’m content to re-read For Esme – With Love and Squalor.
Michelle
Great treatment of the pathway to excellence – I enjoyed it. The balance of inner work and outer work is an important one.
Such a timely and inspiring post. I know I am amazed at the dedication and ability of the Olympic athletes. Hearing the hours each puts into his/her sport is inspiring. I love how you tied it into writing.