Craft the art

"It’s first necessary to be able to saw wood neatly and to drive nails. Later you can bevel the edges or add elegant finials, if that’s your taste."

William Zinsser

Writing art doesn’t happen on the first stroke of the pen.

Art is figuratively and literally hidden within craft.

That is to say, you get to beauty through practice. By learning first how to write solid, clean sentences, free of knots.

Even the greats find great writing hard.

"Easy reading is damn hard writing"

Nathaniel Hawthorne

There's something about writing that fools us into thinking we don't have to try. We were taught English at school and we write every day. But we weren't taught the craft. We weren't taught what to cut or keep.

But we wouldn’t pick up a guitar and expect to riff like Hendrix. It’s easy to forget writing is a skill and to get better, you have to write more.

Nothing proves this formula more curiously than when a ceramics teacher took his class and divided them in two:

Half were judged on pot quality
Half were judged on pot quantity

The best pots came from the people who made the most pots.

Through the relentless pursuit of their craft the students realised beauty, quality, and art.

And guess what the Atomic Copy Handbook is?

It’s me practising my craft. It’s me taking another stab at shaping the clay and pinching the pot into something artful but more importantly, useful.

Just like a good pot should be.

Early on, you'll have to let the writer write it, take time away and return as the editor. You'll be surprised what the writer wrote.

But the more you do it, the more the writer learns what the editor dislikes. And the more the editor catches the writer in the act. Until, first drafts start to look like second drafts, then third drafts, then fourth drafts.

And this is how you write well quickly. It's the compounded effect of lots of editing where, what comes out of the writer, is filtered immediately through the seasoned editor.

That's not to say flaws, cracks, and impurities aren't found in the brilliant copy of a hardened writer.

But they do get caught earlier in the process, some never making it to the page again.