Whatever you're trying to create, start by doing, and improve the process not the product.
The late Stephen Sondheim was one of the greatest writers and composers for Musical Theatre ever to have lived.
In his best works—Company, Sweeney Todd, Follies, Sunday in the Park with George, to name a few—I really think he comes close to rivalling Shakespeare in his capacity for creating highly individualised, ambivalent and above all human characters. And of course these pieces are all held together by exquisite music and witty lyrics. Of course Sondheim wasn't simply born with the skill of writing fantastic musicals, but it also wasn't just the result of hard work either.
What Sondheim did specifically was put his hard work into writing multiple musicals - he got good at the process of writing.
Write your baby photos
After his parents divorced, Sondheim’s mother took him to live in rural Pennsylvania. In one of those amazing, indeed frankly incredible, twists of fate, the occupant of the neighbouring farm was Oscar Hammerstein. Sondheim's strained relationship with his mother meant that he spent little time at home and so, after he struck up a friendship with Hammerstein's son James, gradually the elder Hammerstein became something of a surrogate father to him.
Having heard that Sondheim was writing little sketches and plays at school, Hammerstein set the teenager a challenge: write four musicals, one based on a play he admired, one based on a play he liked but thought flawed, one based on a novel not previously dramatised, and finally one that was completely original. Sondheim never quite finished the challenge (one musical was left unfinished) and yet the process as a whole was critical to his development as a writer. Sondheim has since described them as his “baby photos” – snapshots of an artist growing up and finding his voice.
Treat writing like going to the gym
Ever since I first read this story, it’s been emblematic for me of a lesson that anyone creative—and I include myself as a scientist in that category—needs to learn as early as possible. We all have an apprentice phase to get through; the only way to learn your craft is to do as much of it as possible and gradually improve on each iteration. Had Sondheim instead tried to write just one musical (or worse, just a single song) and poured all his effort into making it as good as it could be, there’s no doubt that he would not have become the master craftsman that he undoubtedly was. In fact, he might not have become a writer at all.
Above all: quantity comes before quality. Or better, quantity leads to quality.
In a way this should make perfect sense. In a sporting context, you wouldn’t expect to get better without putting the reps in. You wouldn’t turn up to the gym, lift one really heavy weight and then go home; instead we all know you need to lift a challenging, but still manageable, weight for multiple reps, over and over, while constantly evaluating your technique and gradually improving with every iteration.
The same is true for writing. To give another example: Ian McEwan, now a powerhouse novelist, started out writing short horror stories. He wrote two collections before he published his first full length novel, all the time honing his ability to craft a concise and compelling narrative. He’s now one of the most accomplished and prolific novelists of his generation.
Putting it into practice: three tips
There are three secrets to doing this well:
The first is that you have to practice doing whole projects – in these early stages, doing bits and pieces, working on the components or trying to level up your skills isn’t that useful, because what you really need to train is your ability simply to get the work done. It’s no good becoming the best writer of opening sentences in the world if the rest of the article doesn’t get written. Practice completing the whole cycle of a project.
The second secret is always to have more work coming down the pipeline. Austin Kleon calls this ‘chain smoking’ work. It’s the best way to overcome any kind of block you might face, because it releases the pressure on what you’re working on now. When Cal Newport feels himself doubting his writing, he tells himself that “The next book can be better”, this one just needs to be done.
The final secret is to make the feedback cycle as short as possible. This is key to learning any skill quickly because, especially in the beginning, the cost of embedding bad habits is so high. Conversely, the value of feedback, the amount that you can improve on each iteration, is massive.
Fortunately, with the internet and social media, getting feedback is now easier than ever (so long as you're willing to work in public). Write a first draft and share it. It's that simple. No waiting to hear back from editors, no rejection letters. Just share your work online. If you really want to supercharge this, you can also identify 3-5 people who you think might be interested, and send them the link directly, asking for feedback.
It's only once you get the wheel turning that you can start thinking about getting better. You can examine your process: Where are the bottlenecks? What is good about the product and how can it be improved next time? How can I make the production process easier or faster?
Crucially, you can only answer these questions once you’ve put your work in front of an audience. Improvement requires feedback, and feedback requires you to have something to evaluate in the first place.