This P-Word is Critical to Your Future Writing Success

If you want to become the writer you are meant to be, then you must embrace these three truths.

1. You must make writing a lifestyle
2. You must learn your craft
3. You must move forward one piece at a time

This article is the third in a three part series on how to become the writer you are meant to be.

Move Forward One Piece at a Time

The third truth for writing success is that you must keep moving forward one piece at a time.

If the first truth was about habits (make writing a lifestyle), the second about knowledge (learn your craft), then this one is about action (move forward one piece at a time).

Habits, knowledge, action. These are your truths.

I chose the name PieceWorx to connote a utility, a factory which produces pieces of writing, not unlike the waterworks or other public works.

Utilities, for the most part, just work and keep producing.

This is what you must do. Even though you feel that you don't have all the answers, even though you feel your work is not very good, you must keep going. This is how you improve and this is what separates you from all the others who gave up after two weeks because they didn't see the rewards they were looking for.

Failure Is a Stepping Stone

When I started college I considered majoring in physics. It wasn't a good sign that I failed my first college physics exam.

I did slightly better on the second exam. I earned a D.

I felt completely lost in that physics class. I had no idea what I was doing.

Sheer persistence is all that kept me going.

My hopes of succeeding in that class had disappeared after the first exam, so I soldiered on hoping I could at least avoid abject failure.

I gradually improved my scores as the semester went by, yet the odds of earning an A for the course were nearly nil.

I promised myself that if, by some miracle, I did earn an A that I would continue studying physics.

Against all odds, my efforts paid off and I earned one of the top grades on the final exam and an A for the course.

I succeeded because I kept trying things and I kept fighting.

Who would have predicted after that first exam that I would eventually go on to earn my Ph.D. in particle physics from Duke University?!

Be willing to try stuff in your life to see if it works. Remember that you may have to keep at it for a long time. Persistence is a key component of your future success.

So there it is, the end of part three and your blueprint for becoming the writer you are meant to be.

It won't be easy, but if you embrace the three truths I presented here, it might be easier than you think.

You can do it. Get out there and change the world one word at a time.

Keep writing. Keep learning. Keep taking action. Don't give up!

• Part 1 - Making Writing a Lifestyle
• Part 2 - Learning Your Craft