Are you an ‘expert’ at 100 hours, or 500 hours or is it more like 1000 hours before you can wear the title?

A ‘master’ of a craft can only call themselves that after hours of practical application. However, there’s always debate on just how many hours that is.

Writing is an odd craft. On the surface it might not seem like a craft at all. Writing may seem cerebral, the exact sum total of ‘book learning’ but the truth is that writing is just as nuanced and as practical as any physical craft (though obviously with less cuts, bruises, or blisters to show for it). You learn writing by doing it and it takes a lot of writing before you feel like you know what you’re doing.

I’ve been ‘taking my writing seriously’ for about seven or eight years now. Each year entering another NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November. I’ve written a lot now and this year I’m on my tenth NaNo project.

This means that at some point tonight I’ll have written half a million words (combining all my writing projects to date). I can’t figure out whether this means I’m a better writer now or if it simply means that my imposter syndrome is less forceful now.

It has been an amazing experience and I genuinely do feel like I’ve improved my ability to get my ideas/stories across.

In November of 2014 I sat down and wrote this opening paragraph:

“Jack pulled his old coat close but it wasn’t doing much against the drizzling rain, it wasn’t waterproof, it was really thin, and the wind was whistling in at him no matter how tight he pulled the zip up.”

My first ever NaNoWriMo word was ‘Jack’. Tonight I’ll find out my five-hundred-thousandth word will be.

Wish me luck!

As always, thanks for stopping by my site,

All the best, John