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| Touring the USS Blueback Submarine at OMSI |
Yesterday, Elinor asked me, “How do you write a good book? You know, a book or movie that other people want to read.”
What an excellent question!
I was already thinking about what I wanted to write for my 42nd birthday, and I kept coming back to the idea of doing 100 reps to get good at something. But it turns out that’s exactly what I wrote about for my 41st birthday. It’s nice to know I’m consistent. :)
In responding to Elinor, I first confessed that I don’t know for certain because I’ve never written a book, let alone a good one. But I have some clues.
#1 Write a Lot
You have to write a lot and be OK with it being bad at first. But if you commit to writing each day and trying to get better each time, you’ll eventually write a good book. You can be impatient with the inputs — like your effort — because that’s what you control. But then you need to be extra-patient with the outputs.
The question I keep thinking about is, how do I accelerate — be impatient with — the reps? I’m pretty sure there isn’t a shortcut other than devoting more time to getting reps in than seems “reasonable.”
When Elinor first started playing piano, she was bad. And that was OK! With daily practice, she’s improved and now plays songs I recognize. If she keeps playing, she’ll eventually write her own songs and will likely create something good. It might be years, but again, that’s OK!
It also inherently requires focus. By devoting time to getting better at one thing, you have to say no to other things. This is my number one struggle. I love shiny objects and do a great job of figuring out how to justify them! For example, in the last year I got my property management licenses, drone pilot licenses, and contractor’s license. They’re all related to real estate investing, which is how I justify it, but I’m not going 1,000 miles deep in any one. Maybe it’s OK... given the next idea I shared with Elinor?
#2 Combine Ideas
The best way to come up with an “original idea” is to combine many ideas. In the book “Steal Like an Artist,” Austin Kleon wrote:
“The writer Wilson Mizner said if you copy from one author, it’s plagiarism, but if you copy from many, it’s research. I once heard the cartoonist Gary Panter say, “If you have one person you’re influenced by, everyone will say you’re the next whoever. But if you rip off a hundred people, everyone will say you’re so original!” (p. 36)”
I often think of myself as a curator. When writing website/ad copy or creating analysis dashboards, I’ll first look at dozens of examples. I’ll pick and choose the pieces I like and then combine them into what ultimately becomes my own thing.
For example, my real estate podcast is styled after the Bible Project Podcast, where one person, me, is the expert and the other person, Jessi, is “normal.” The topics are inspired by other real estate podcasts/articles, economic news sources, and my personal investing experience. Combining them all produced something new.
And in my property management business, we’re vertically integrating maintenance to create a better service for our owners and tenants (hence the contractor license). This isn’t a unique idea yet, but I’m getting there.
Create Good Things
I really like what Elinor is thinking about! The desire to be good at something is admirable and worth striving for. It’s hard, but that’s what builds character. I’m looking forward to another trip around the sun with my kids as we all push to get better.