Poetica Magazine

In Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell presents a detailed argument for why it takes 10,000 hours of practice to excel at something. He cites examples such as the Beatles who played five plus hours a night for extended engagements at a club in Hamburg, Germany, honing their skills as performers. When they became musical sensations in 1964, they had already performed live about twelve hundred times. As a teenager, Bill Gates, spent night after night at a computer terminal. When he dropped out of Harvard to create Microsoft, he had been programming for seven years. Yes, Bill Gates and the Beatles were endowed with natural talent, but they also followed the 10,000 hour rule. Success did not come till after they had spent hour upon hour upon hour upon hour simply PRACTICING. What does this mean to me as a writer?

First off, it encourages me and makes me feel better about all the years it took before my first published book came out in 1995. The Grey Striped Shirt, a book about a nine-year- old girl who finds a concentration camp uniform in her grandparent's closet, went through one draft after another after another. . . I come close with one publisher, who would make suggestions and then I would do a rewrite. Then another editor would show interest and I'd rewrite. The process took years. Before that, I had written stories, poems, book reviews, and newspaper articles for about fifteen years. In college, I had majored in creative writing, continuing with the passion that really began in grade school. I can't remember a time in my life that I didn't write stories and poems. In third grade, when the teacher asked us to put a strip of construction paper on the bulletin board, stating our career goal, I wrote  "writer." Why did it take 30 years of writing to publish my first book? The 10,000 hour rule. I needed to practice. I needed to learn my craft.

And thirteen more books later, the 10,000 hour rule still applies. My first drafts are always worms, barely able to crawl. A few drafts later, I have a cocoon. Many more drafts later, I have a wet butterfly. My work goes through so many revisions before it is publishable, that I lose count. Why is writing so hard?

Talent is important. Good opportunities are important. But to be excellent, you have to practice. And practice and practice. . . and practice.

Guest Blogger BIO: Jacqueline Jules is the author of fourteen children's books including Sarah Laughs, a 2009 Sydney Taylor Honor Award book. Please visit her at www.jacquelinejules.com