Does writing get easier the more you do it?
Yes and no.
YES: WRITING GETS EASIER OVER TIME
- Once you’ve written books or short stories you have the confidence to do it again.
- You become more familiar with your writing software. You may already be familiar with Word, but most people don’t use Scrivener until they start writing something longer, and there’s a bit of a learning curve to that, especially since everyone uses it differently. Everyone must find their own workflow.
- If you had to learn to type or the conventions of punctuation (does the full-stop go before or after the closing speech marks?) those things also become automatic.
- The more you write, the easier it becomes to transfer your thoughts to the page.
- If you have people waiting for your work, those fans can motivate you to keep going.
- Over time many writers are able to build a trusted set of people: editors, beta readers and knowledgeable friends. These people can assuage self-doubt.
NO: WRITING DOES NOT GET EASIER OVER TIME
- Every new project is an entirely new job with its own unique set of problems to be overcome.
- It’s easy to fall into the mental trap of: “Just because I did it before doesn’t mean I can do it again. Those other times were a lucky fluke. I’m done. I’ve passed my peak!”
- Whereas you might have been storytelling using your intuition last time, the more you become immersed in writing world, the more aware you become of all there is to know about the craft. This helps when trying to fix things that aren’t working, but when previously tacit knowledge becomes conscious, it can also stand in the way of the creative process.
- When you have people waiting for your work, those fans can get in your head in an unhelpful way.
After writing many different things, including six published novels, South African author Lauren Beukes had this to say:
It gets worse. There’s more pressure, you’re even more aware of the things that you don’t know. […] I’ve always struggled to write. I love it, and when I get into flow it’s amazing. I love having written. The actual process of writing I find very difficult and very in-you-head. The writer Jason Arnopp has a great analogy. He says, “Writing isn’t hard like being a firefighter is hard. Writing is hard like being on fire.” I really love that.
Lauren Beukes
(Beukes also talks about how her recent AD/HD diagnosis helped immensely.)
THE MORE YOU KNOW, THE MORE YOU REALISE YOU DON’T KNOW
The quote is attributed to Aristotle, though it’s a modern paraphrasing of what he actually wrote in “Metaphysics”. Socrates, Lao-Tse and George Bernard Shaw have said similar things (no doubt alongside many women, whose words are historically less likely to be recorded.)
In any case, Aristotle’s famous observation around knowledge gain has resonance because it applies to any field, not just writing.
See also: Why can we not perceive our own abilities? The Dunning–Kruger Effect, explained.
Below, the concept is taken ad absurdum using the realm of computer geekery:
