The Twenty-Five Year Rule: A Traditional Path to Becoming a Great Writer
Writing takes time. Attendees, when I do presentations, look at me with a cross-eyed effect when I tell them I think it takes about twenty-five years of constant study after one simply learns the basics before one knows what they are doing. There are exceptions, of course, Doogie Howser for those old enough to remember that fun little TV series, but for most, writing, like becoming a doctor, takes time. All of this is an analogy, but let’s say that the first thirteen years of your education to become a writer (we’re saying thirteen because kindergarten is mandatory these days) is simply to learn the basics. This is where you read and write things that most people won’t read. Most writers start young. They start writing when they’re probably in grammar school, so here’s where the clock starts ticking. Once they graduate from these thirteen years of writing only things that schoolteachers will read, things they write in private diaries, and poetry that they share only with their closest friends, then they symbolically graduate and get down to some serious study. This will take about four years of writing things that we might try to get published and really studying the work that has historically come before us. Somewhere in those four years, hopefully, we will find something of our voice (but not quite) and our literary direction. Then, off we go to our symbolic medical school (I picked medical school because it fulfills my example, and I’m of the crazy belief that being a writer is no less of a profession than being a doctor). During this time, we spend four years getting intense in our work, writing and studying every day, publishing in journals, attempting to publish books of merit, and by the end of those four years, we discover some degree of success, but we’re not there yet. By this time, hopefully, we have found our voice, we know what we want to write, we know what comes from our heart effortlessly, and we begin to specialize (just like a medical residency) and plow that field for about four years. During that time, we make a name for ourselves in our specialty, we’re proficient at what we do, we’re not overwhelmed when we sit down to write, we never experience writer’s block and all the things that we might have experienced back in the nascent stage of our ambitions. At the end of all this, twenty-five years in the making, we find now that we are very comfortable in our profession. Believe it or not, following this strategy, many writers have, income-wise, exceeded those of doctors, and, silly as it sounds, they achieve it by working only a few hours a day and spending the rest of the day reading.
There are two points that I’d like to leave you with here. The first is that there are always exceptions to this. Some people cut a stage from four years down to three or maybe even two. Second, all through the process, you will be publishing, but you’ll probably be compensated with two free copies of the issue within which your poem or short story is contained. Payment: two free copies, a tear sheet, and bragging rights to open the next door to the next submission. At the end of the twenty-five years, however, you will be making real money if you follow this traditional plan. Next, what I’m talking about here is the traditional route to becoming a writer. Self-publishing does not necessarily take this long. I can write a masterpiece or I can write gibberish and have both on Amazon tomorrow. I might be exceptional, or I might be foolish. What I’m talking about here is not even so much going a traditional route to publishing but rather the time it takes, not focusing on being published, but like a doctor, to build one’s craft. Even if you do self-publish a masterpiece after only six months of deciding to be a writer, and it does wonderfully (and I’m delighted for you), I still think the twenty-five-year rule works, and I can only imagine the incredible things you’ll be producing twenty-five years from now if you keep after it every day.
So, what is the point of all this? Excellence, whether you are a writer or a doctor, takes time. It takes time to learn your craft, but even more time to learn to practice your craft. When you start your writing career, be realistic. You may strike the jackpot early, or you may be one of the common ones who grow into their career. The point is, once you decide to make the commitment to be a writer, go for it. I wish you a quick and easy path to riches. But for most of you, I wish you patience. Hang in there. It will come. Don’t give up. Crazy as it may sound, if you’re writing every day and trying to get published somewhere every week, give it time. Even if it takes twenty-five years, you’ll eventually live the dream. It is never time to give up. Always ask yourself: do you want to be an incredible writer? Or are you motivated by unrealistic impatience? Only you can decide where your heart is.
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