What 10,000 hours of practice looks like

[jaus tail]

In case of athletes, you can watch a match and observe how good the players are. I think a person would get exhausted if he had to read all the fiction stories of students in writing camp.

We have online forums to improve our writing.

I guess there's immense competition in every field. Not every kid who likes to play badminton in tennis makes it to the Grand Slam. And it's all right. Maybe midway s/he found the sweetheart of their life and decided to get take up a job, move to a less crowded lane, and raise kids. The person can still play tennis on weekends.

It could be s/he has more comfort with the partner or with friends than on tennis court.

The thing about writing, is there really isn't much potential for immediate feedback about whether something *really* works or not. This is true with art too, I'm guessing, but less so for science or athletic endeavors, where there's an external criteria for success that's more objectively defined.

True. External feedback is important and is very subjective in case of writing(art). I think it also depends on success. Some of my colleagues play football on weekends. They aren't in any team that plays world wide. These folks may not be better than Intl football players, nor do they train likewise, but their ambition is also not to be one. And maybe even that is all right.

It's not like you're a writer only if you've had a best seller. It'd be great if you have but it's not a criterion. Imo, of course.

 

[andiwrite]

As a visual artist, I absolutely believe in talent, and I am also largely unimpressed by it.

I've known a lot of very talented artists. The vast majority never did anything much with it and eventually got jobs doing something else.

Yes. What I believe matters the most is passion. Passion is the thing that will fuel practice and keep a writer from giving up, even during the greatest setbacks and most depressing times. Not that I'm really successful or anything, but I have completed and published a novel, and the main difference I see between myself and the handful of friends I know who were also writing a novel at one point is simply passion. I'm about a thousand times more passionate than they are, and it didn't surprise me when all of them got bored and gave up on their novel in the early stages. I've been told I'm naturally talented as a writer, but I think my real talent is my ability to become intensely focused on something for a long period of time and my complete inability to give up.

 

[jaus tail]

One must also be humble, I guess. If one is too arrogant to learn or realize where they've faulted then maybe even that can hinder the person's craft's improvement.