99% Perspiration

Hi, Friends!

At a recent lunch with my mom and sister, my sister was sharing updates on her boys. Her middle son is struggling to keep his grades up this year. In elementary school, he had been highly motivated to get good grades and worked very hard to achieve them. Middle school is more difficult for him, and his grades are beginning to reflect that. He told his mom, “I’m just not motivated.”

She, of course, told him it doesn’t really matter if he’s motivated. Sometimes she isn’t motivated to do household chores or pay bills, but she does it anyway.

What my nephew is learning early in life is that success is really about discipline. It’s about developing good habits. It’s about making yourself do important things whether or not you are motivated or inspired to do them.

This is one of those lessons that can apply to every aspect of life. It’s one of those lessons that I logically can get behind, but admittedly have struggled with recently in my writing life.

When I read or hear writing advice by the likes of James Patterson (MasterClass: James Patterson Teaches Writing), Stephen King (On Writing) and Elizabeth Gilbert (Big Magic) and countless other writing gurus, I nod along, Oh, yes, consistency and putting in the time are definitely important.

And then I promptly go back to completing tasks in order of urgency, getting to the writing “if I have time.”

It seems that while all of this advice — which boils down to “if you wanna write, you gotta write!” — makes perfect sense, and even having experienced wonderful results by applying this advice for chunks of time (like for NaNoWriMo) I just haven’t been able to firmly establish the excellent long-term habit of writing every day.

My previous experience hasn’t helped matters.

Through the years, my best creative work resulted after I was struck with a lightning bolt of inspiration. I would have a project or assignment in the back of my mind, and suddenly it would occur to me what I should do with it. I would get down to business, often working late into the night, capitalizing on the momentum of turning that inspiration into reality.

Then, in a blur, it would be complete. I would sit back and look at the finished product and smile. Inspiration did its thing, and the resulting dopamine hit would carry me through until next time.

I used to misquote Edison, saying “genius is 99% inspiration and 1% perspiration.” Because that’s what my experience had been: 99% inspiration and 1% perspiration.

“Genius is 99% inspiration and 1% perspiration.” ~Patty Davidson, misquoting Thomas Edison

I didn’t believe my husband, Adam, when he gently informed me it was the other way around; I had to look it up.

At that point in my life, I had worked only in shortform so far. A poem. A press release. A collage for art class. A paper on El Niño. A 10-minute presentation.

But add a longform project to the mix — say, for example, a heavily-researched novel about the strength and resilience of a beloved grandmother — and there is no way that one stroke of inspiration is going to carry anyone through the entire process.

Now that I am working on this much more involved project, my brain is struggling to adjust to taking a small piece at a time, instead of expecting the 70,000+ words to simply show up at some point.

If I wasn’t motivated to write this book in the first place, I wouldn’t bother with it at all. And if I didn’t feel inspired each time I learn more about my grandparents’ lives or about life in the coal patches back in the 1930s and ’40s, my writing would come out flat and dull.

But if I actually expect to one day share the full story with you all, I need to get into a very solid habit of writing. So I am joining my dear nephew in the necessity of discipline. Scheduling the work and doing it, whether I feel like it or not. …even if there are other pressing issues vying for my time, because let’s face it: there will always be other pressing issues vying for our time.

This year has been unbelievably stressful and busy so far. I have been working on project after project, each consuming all of my available creative energy. On top of these creative projects, Adam and I took on a final (we hope!) round of major home renovations. It’s like we’re moving into a brand new home — moving furniture, endless cleaning and organizing, unpacking boxes…. So I am going to give myself a little break, and then with batteries recharged, I am renewing my commitment to write consistently, even when I don’t feel that wave of inspiration.

I usually fare better with a goal and deadline in mind, so my goal is to have Draft One written this year. By subscribing to my Substack, you are helping me with accountability towards meeting that goal, and I thank you!

I look forward to continuing to update you on progress as it unfolds. In the meantime, I’m adding a new section to this newsletter: a list of the fiction I’ve recently read or am currently reading. (Because, you know, if you wanna write, you also gotta read!) Please reach out if you’d like to discuss any of these books or to let me know what you’ve been reading!

Until next time,
Patty

Currently reading:

• The Bad Weather Friend, by Dean Koontz (I read a lot of Dean Koontz in high school and college, and feeling nostalgic, I got this on Kindle.)

• The original Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling – I just finished Book 3, The Prisoner of Azkaban. I have seen all of the movies, but this is my first reading of the books. (Thanks to my sister and nephews for loaning them to me.)

Recently read:

• Lovers at the Museum, by Isabel Allende (short story)

• A Fire to Kindle, by Daniel Dydek (Christian allegorical)

• The Lost Letters of Aisling by Cynthia Ellingsen (mostly based in Ireland, but the protagonists are from Pittsburgh, so….)

• Please Tell Me, by Mike Omer (thriller)