This simple step will rocket your writing career

I've been thinking about The Beatles lately since watching a documentary series Tom Hanks produced about the sixties.  It's on Netflix now and you should check it out and the companion piece on the seventies, especially volume one which focuses on the role of television and the evolution of characters.

The reason I'm thinking about the Beatles is because they're mentioned in both sets of the series and it's very interesting to watch how they changed over the course of a decade.  Their music evolved, and shifted from a simple three chord progression to layers of music that included influences from around the globe.

What you learned from watching is the longer The Beatles kept at it, the better they got.

They didn't start out being a supergroup.  In fact, they started out being a not so great group of guys learning to play together.

What they ended up doing is influencing rock and roll, and even after they band broke up, continued to dominate music through the seventies and eighties, experimenting and growing.

As a writer, you have to expect and plan for the same journey.

You're not going to be awesome with the first thing you write.  You're not going to be incredible with the next ten things you write.  But what you can expect is to be just a little bit better than you were before.

And if you keep writing, and keep putting out books, you will be better each and every time.  A 1% improvement on your writing each day yields an over 1000% improvement by the end of one year.

How is that possible?

Start with 100.  The first day 1% improvement is 101.  The next day it's 1% of 101, not 100.  Each day the number climbs a little higher.

If you get just a little bit better every day, at the end of a year, you'll be awesome.

The key is consistent improvement, and doing just a little bit more each day to maintain the consistency.

You could focus on plot, or dialogue or character description.  But I think most authors are looking for a way to not only be a better writer, but to get paid while they practice.

This is where I borrow a philosophy from Seth Godin.  Ship.

Just ship the damn thing.

You could write your first book and spend ten more months making it perfect.  That's a great idea.  It's hard to compete in a market, especially when you don't have an audience to begin with.

While you're waiting on your first round of editing to come back, sit down and write a short story, then publish it.

Then do it again.  Write another short story and publish it.  Keep doing that for weeks on end.

The more you write, the better you will get.  Try changing POV.  Try introducing new characters, or new settings.  Practice the short story arc with a simple solution, or twist.

Keep practicing.  But publish your work on KDP.  Make sure the spelling is correct, and the cover looks good, but get some feedback on your practice.  It just might change the direction of your series.

Hugh Howey published a couple of Novellas, and when one found traction, he published a couple more books for that series.

Could you do the same with short novels? 

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