If you've taken music lessons on any instrument for any amount of time--ever--you've already learned most of the skills you need for a successful writing career.
Back when you were banging away on "Rondo Alla Turca" in that soundproof booth with Mrs. Farfenugel in middle school, I bet you didn't realize you were picking up vital publishing career pointers.
This week’s newsletter is brought to you by the cello lessons I’ve been taking with my nine-year-old for a little more than a year. They’re a lot of fun, although—please do not repeat this to my child—we both stink, at least for now. Neither of us practices enough.
I can see you rolling your eyes. “Practice, practice, practice. I bet that’s what she’s about to tell us: being a good writer, like being a good musician, is all about practice. TELL ME SOMETHING I DON’T KNOW.”
Well—:Mr. Burns laugh:—joke’s on you, because THAT’S NOT WHERE I AM GOING WITH THIS.
Sure, regular practice is important to becoming a good writer. So is reading widely. But if you’re serious about being a professional author, not just “a good writer,” these things are the baseline—so much so as to be functionally irrelevant to this readership.
Most of you are the publishing-professional equivalent of mountain climbers training to summit Everest. “Practice, practice, practice” is a tour bus ticket to base camp, nothing more. And I believe most of you are already there.
Music lessons—if you took any at all and for any amount of time—offer more sophisticated wisdom for summiting creative endeavors. And the sophisticated wisdom is my focus after the paywall below.
(If you never took music lessons at all, that’s fine!! These are all just metaphors.)