Writing is not art: Jumpstarting Production

The single biggest predictor of success is not intelligence or education. It's work ethic. Caring about your work and seeing it through to completion, no matter how hard it is or how much time it takes.

Writing can be hard. There is no denying the fact that writer's block and procrastination happens to everyone, whether you are a professional writer, a business owner creating blog posts a few times a month, or anything in between.

But there is a way break through the cycle of procrastination and block. And its super simple (though not always easy).

Writing is just a job

I grew up working as a hod carrier in the summer. From the time I was 12 to 15, I spent weeks working 10-14 hour days in the elements, carrying 80-pound buckets of mortar one after the other, all day.

It was hard work, but it had a certain cadence and harmony to it. Nothing to over-think. Just carry the bucket, haul it up the scaffolding. Rinse and repeat.

When I was 16 I started college and got my first professional writing job, and I was hooked. But I immediately saw a disturbing habit. I watched my coworkers miss deadlines, deliver half-finished work, and generally underperform. I heard excuses that I still hear from writers almost every day (not my writers though, ya'll are awesome): I was blocked, I didn't have any ideas, I just couldn't write today. You get the idea.

We are trained to think of writing is an art, and of a writer as some sort of mad genius receiving (or not receiving) inspiration at the whim of some outside source. This is simply not true and serves both as an excuse and a hindrance to good work ethic.

Writing is not art, it's manual labor. Just get it done

I'm not saying that to diminish the skill of good writers, far from it. The best working writers are great because they know this.

I applied the same work ethics and principles I learned in masonry: You work hard, do things right the first time, and don't rest until the job is done. And above all: don't overthink it, just get it done.

Once we stop thinking of writing as an art and start diving in and just doing it, our quality and production increases. There is a time and place to be self-critical, but when you are trying to write it's just not helpful. By thinking of writing as something artistic or special we are automatically self-critiquing on a level that induces creative paralysis and restricts our ability to actually do anything.

Keep on writing. Don't accept procrastination. Keep typing. It's not art, it's just writing.

Spencer Kelty is a content marketing strategist helping small-medium size businesses hack their marketing and achieve growth. Spencer spends most of his time writing and editing, with three fiction books scheduled for release in 2019.