I was reading an article on how to become an expert in an area. Any area, nothing specific. The basic premise does not come from a newspaper article, but from a book. Since I have not read it, I will not quote it, and regarding the article itself, I realized later that there are a million articles about it … neither is it worth mentioning any source. I hope I do not simply repeat what everybody says, with a couple motivating quotes and nothing more (apparently that is the purpose of those articles, to motivate people).
It takes 10,000 hours practicing something to become a master in that subject. Whether writing, drawing, learning a language, any skill can be improved to the point of being a «master» in that subject, if you dedicate the amount of hours needed. That is why many «masters» in some areas have started from very young their “practice”. I think of athletes like Serena Williams, or Tiger Woods, who were trained by their parents, as was Michael Jackson in singing and dancing, or, of course, Mozart, who played in all European courts at age 5 .
In the case of writers, for example, it would represent something like one million words. So many words! (My » Liriethem» mini-novel has 18,000 words only). You need to be very critical of your own work so that it improves, so that it finally reaches the public, and following that logic, the first million words should be kept in the dark so that only the «master» content can be seen. But is this really true?
I do not believe that the 10,000 hours are a mathematical matter and that at 9,999 and 59 seconds, one second later you suddenly become a master. The writer inside needs to be nurtured by reading other works, the passion of the painter needs to be fed by watching exhibitions and studying different currents, learning a language also requires knowledge of the culture of the country or countries where that language is spoken … practice does make the master, but so much more time must be invested so that the growth goes in the right direction.
By this I mean, I will not wait for a million words in vain to try to publish something. I know that I will improve with time, I hope at least to share that journey of growth with those who want to read those words.
GG Klimt
GG KLIMT 