Rapid Writing
Good writing is a natural consequence of volume + attentive editing. And mainly, this involves persistence, not talent.
Are you a deluded writer? Stop! Before you answer that question, let me tell you about Brian Wansink and the bottomless bowl of tomato soup.
Wansink is a scientist who holds the John S. Dyson Endowed Chair at Cornell University where he is Director of the Food and Brand Lab. He's also the author of the 2006 book Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More.
In one of his most famous studies, he rigged up "bottomless" bowls of tomato soup. (Researchers kept the bowls filled by hidden tubes that imperceptibly kept adding more soup while the subjects ate). Wansink then compared the eating habits of people faced with a normal bowl, versus those given a "bottomless" bowl. The results were astonishing.
People who had a normal bowl ate, on average, nine ounces of soup. But people who ate from the rigged bowls averaged 15 ounces -- 73 percent more! And most amazingly, the subjects at the self-filling bowls did not rate themselves as any more full than the subjects at the normal bowls.
All of which goes to show, we are terrible judges of ourselves.
This principle applies to our writing, too. Are our carefully thought-out words lucid, moving, and compelling? Or are they boring, self-indulgent, and banal? Who knows? The problem is, we're not very skilled at analyzing ourselves.
From time to time, I make the mistake of letting myself feel discouraged by the inadequacy of my writing. At other times I make the equally pointless error of wallowing in self-satisfaction over the supposed wonderfulness of my words. When either of these things happens, I bring myself back to earth by rereading the wonderful Annie Dillard quote:
"The feeling that the work is magnificent, and the feeling that it is abominable, are both mosquitoes to be repelled, ignored, or killed, but not indulged."
Don't let yourself get sucked in to the "Am I a good writer?" question, because you can't really answer it! Instead of trying for "good," which is elusive, simply try for "better" and "more." If you can't even judge how much soup you're slurping, how on earth can you do something really complicated like evaluate the ultimate merit of your writing?
Good writing is a natural consequence of volume + attentive editing (as well as voracious reading). And mainly, this involves persistence, not talent. If you read a lot, write a lot and are industrious about revising, you will get better. It's that simple. Remember that the next time you enjoy a bowl of soup. 
A former daily newspaper editor, Daphne Gray-Grant is a writing and editing coach and the author of 8 1⁄2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better. She offers a weekly newsletter on her website Publication Coach. It's brief. It's smart. And it's free.
(Thanks for the soup can to Parenting Miracles, but I'm guessing its real parent is Andy Warhol. --WTP)
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