Of Eggs and Baskets

You know that theory going around that it only takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at anything? Yeah. As I suspected, it's a big bunch of preservative-laden baloney.

The idea was popularized recently in Outliers, a book by Malcolm Gladwell, that says 10,000 hours of practice can turn anyone into an expert. Somehow, way down deep in my gastric region (oops...sorry for the visual), I just knew that if I cracked open some rocket science books and read for 10k hours, that I wouldn't become one of NASA's top dogs. It's not that simple.

This is not to say, however, that putting time and effort into a skill won't improve your aptitude. I'm just saying it takes more than reading about writing to master the craft. Things like:

• Take workshops
• Go to conferences
• Interact in face-to-face critique groups
• Branch out into different kinds of writing to broaden your range (poetry, for example)
• Try teaching writing techniques to kids

Reading craft books is a valid way to grow as a writer, but it's not the only way.