{"id":934,"date":"2016-04-18T15:24:39","date_gmt":"2016-04-18T20:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zachbarnesonwriting.wordpress.com\/?p=934"},"modified":"2016-04-18T15:24:39","modified_gmt":"2016-04-18T20:24:39","slug":"workout-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2016\/04\/18\/workout-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Workout Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

At first, when\u00a0I heard a piece of advice from fantasy author Brandon Sanderson saying something to the effect of “your first three novels will suck. period.” I wanted to rebel, tear my hair and clothing, etc. \u00a0After all, it was Brandon Sanderson’s meteoric rise to fantasy stardom that I wanted to imitate, and at the time I was still on book number 2.<\/p>\n

Looking back, I’d like to translate what he said for you, my reader: \u00a0“You will only begin to understand how to write after you’ve invested\u00a0a lot of words on the page.”<\/p>\n

If you read the above quote as saying: “as long as I write a lot, I’ll eventually get better.” \u00a0That’s wrong. \u00a0And stupid. \u00a0I’d like to borrow a tired chich\u00e9 from my music education experience, which is that the “practice makes perfect” mantra is misleading. \u00a0Practice makes permanent<\/em> is more often true. \u00a0Only perfect practice makes perfect. \u00a0Which raises the question: how does one practice writing?<\/p>\n

You could, as per my\u00a0most basic interpretation of Brandon Sanderson’s thought implies, mash your face against the keyboard and pray for eventual success.<\/p>\n

Or…<\/em><\/p>\n

You could write like you go to the gym. \u00a0If you’ve ever heard of “leg-day” you know what I’m talking about. \u00a0Gym-goers focus on one specific muscle group per workout in order to give the others time to rest and rebuild. \u00a0And they judiciously use rest days.<\/p>\n

This can be mimicked to great effect in order to practice anything in your life, including writing. \u00a0“Dialogue-day” and “description-day” are some of my own “workouts.” \u00a0Identify different areas of your writing that you would like to work on and dedicate times to try to improve those areas. \u00a0I like these exercises because they give me a dedicated space to practice my writing skills without threatening the continuity or voice of my projects. \u00a0Plus, it can be really fun to write a scene using nothing but dialogue.<\/p>\n

Keep in mind that\u00a0these practice sessions should not take up a great portion of your writing time, and that despite all of this, honing your personal craft ultimately comes down to\u00a0investing\u00a0words on the page. \u00a0Just know that if you practice intelligently<\/em>, you’ll get better, faster, or your money back guaranteed.<\/p>\n

\"shenandoah-park-national-autumn-wallpapers-background\"
The Shenandoah is a beautiful place. \u00a0You should hike there; It’s fun.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019m on facebook at:\u00a0https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/zachbarnesonwriting<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

And Twitter: @ZacharyBarnes4<\/span><\/p>\n

Like or follow me if you enjoy\u00a0the blog!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t steal\u00a0my words. \u00a0They\u2019re mine. Zachary Barnes 2016\u00a9<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’d like to borrow a tired chich\u00e9 from my music education experience, which is that the “practice makes perfect” mantra is misleading. Practice makes permanent is more often true. Only perfect practice makes perfect. Which raises the question: how does one practice writing?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"amazonpipp_noncename":"","amazon-product-isactive":"","amazon-product-single-asin":"","amazon-product-content-location":"","amazon-product-content-hook-override":"","amazon-product-excerpt-hook-override":"","amazon-product-singular-only":"","amazon-product-amazon-desc":"","amazon-product-show-gallery":"","amazon-product-show-features":"","amazon-product-newwindow":"","amazon-product-show-list-price":"","amazon-product-show-used-price":"","amazon-product-show-saved-amt":"","amazon-product-timestamp":"","amazon-product-new-title":"","amazon-product-use-cartURL":"","amazon_featured_post_meta_key":"","_amazon_featured_alt":"","amazon-product-template":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[2,17,21,27,28,29,50,52],"tags":[60,61,65,68,134,149,200,201,204],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":40,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2015\/01\/12\/parentheses\/","url_meta":{"origin":934,"position":0},"title":"Parentheses","date":"January 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's how it worked: I'd play through and etude, and 90% of it was okay, but then I'd get to that 10% where the shit would hit the fan. I avoided utter embarrassment by employing the musical equivalent of cursing under your breath so that your mother can't hear you\u2026","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Mountains\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1214,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2016\/05\/24\/daniels-10-minute-rule\/","url_meta":{"origin":934,"position":1},"title":"Daniel's 10 Minute Rule","date":"May 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"When I meet a new writer, musician, artist, or any other creative type, the foremost question that intrigues me is: \"how do you keep yourself on track?\"","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Advice\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":137,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2015\/02\/19\/review-of-steven-eriksons-gardens-of-the-moon\/","url_meta":{"origin":934,"position":2},"title":"Review of Steven Erikson's GARDENS OF THE MOON","date":"February 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a tricky review for me because I absolutely love this series (books 2, 3 and 4, specifically). But I didn't love it at first. In fact, I had a pretty hard time getting through it. So here's the deal: if you read this, you need to treat it\u2026","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Book Reviews\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}