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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25689
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25689
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Let's say that you wanted to become a circus performer. You want your act to be juggling flaming batons blindfolded while riding a unicycle on a tightrope over a tiger cage.

You recognize that your first attempt to do any of these things, let alone do them all together, is going to suck. So what do you do? You go away and you practice each element separately. You watch other performers to learn their technique. Maybe you go to circus school. And you practice, practice, practice.

In each of the skills in your act you will hit a plateau where you will get discouraged. If you really want to be a circus performer, you will persevere and eventually start improving again. If not, you will quit and do something else. That's fine. We all have to test our resolve to know how much we really want something. Maybe you will decide to be an accountant but you will put on a clown suit and juggle rubber balls for children's parties on the weekends. That is fine too.

One day, if you work long enough and hard enough, you will ride your unicycle blindfold across a pit of tigers while juggling flaming batons and the crowd will go wild.

Learning to write it like that too. It looks easy, but then, the great circus performers make it look easy. But a writer had to build a world, create characters, paint a scene, tell a story, expound a theme, and charm the reader with beauty all in a single string of words. It is at least as complicated and difficult a task as riding a unicycle blindfold over a pit of tigers while juggling flaming batons. It takes as long to learn. There will be plateaus that test your resolve. Most who try never get good enough to wow the crowd.

So you have discovered that it's hard. It is not just hard for you. It is hard for everyone. The question is, how much do you want it? How hard are you willing to work to get it? How afraid are you of heights, or fire, or tigers?

Suggestions? Like any complex and difficult skill, start with something small and simple. Practice till you get good. Add something else. And study the masters. Study them all the time.

Original score: 16