Because we think in words and talk with words, many people are convinced that not only can they write but that writing will be easy.

Being an editor showed me how much people overestimate themselves and underestimate the difficulty of writing.

Countless people asked me for the opportunity to write columns. Sometimes it was a government official or staffer wanting to communicate with constituents. Sometimes it was a member of some club or a head of an organization wanting to showcase what they do or what they offer. In all cases, the columns were topics of their choice.

No matter the focus, no matter who pitched the idea,  after three years, the only columnists I ended up with were those who were contributing columns long before I was on the job.

Of all the people who pitched me a column, I never received more than three submissions. From some folks, I didn’t receive any.

But why were so many columns so short-lived? How come some never get off the ground?

Many of the people who approached me had a lot of ideas. Some were great ideas.

But ideas are not writing skills. And ideas are certainly not the discipline to write.

Anyone can think. That comes naturally. But everyone who wants to write isn’t a writer.

Discipline & Writing

Writing requires discipline and exposes people for having a lot less of it than they think.

First, writing requires the discipline to show up.

Usually, there’s nothing to make a person follow through on a plan to write. People will say it’s something they want to do, but then procrastinate.

And then, they’ll procrastinate some more.

Until, eventually, so much time will pass that they’ll just give up on the idea

It’s easier to sign up than to show up. ~KnowGoodWriter

Second, to write, you need the discipline to do the work.

A lot of people believe their thoughts position them to be a good writer. They believe writing is simply thinking onto the page.

That’s until they get in front of a blank page.

Trying to write shows some people they don’t have as many thoughts as it seemed. Some realize that their thoughts aren’t as well defined or as easy to communicate as they expected. Others are defeated by an untrained, overactive mind.

For a writer, an active mind is like an unruly child. And having too many thoughts is akin being possessed by demons.

Writing is, for most, laborious and slow. The mind travels faster than the pen… Elements of Style

Managing one’s thoughts is only part of the hard work of writing. There’s research, composition, assessing the logic, and polishing the content to make it flow. 

Since writing is more work than many think, it requires more time than many people expect. Writing requires the discipline to start from nothing and continue until the work is finished. In most cases, that commitment needs to happen without the threat of consequences or the guarantee of rewards.

Regardless of what anyone says, consequences and rewards are the main reasons people get things done. Without them, you’ll find a lot of failure to follow through because most people aren’t nearly as self-driven as they believe.

Many start out underestimating what it takes to write. When they fail, they make excuses for why it didn’t work out. I lost interest. I didn’t have the time.

The truth is, many don’t have the discipline.

Discipline can be harder to develop than skills.

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