I’ve been learning a ton lately, all about how people work, writing, and publishing.
Yes, I know a lot about how people work already, but people seem to want to use AI and other tools in ways that I think are unwise. Since these people think AI is helping them, I need to understand why they think so.
And while I already know a lot about nonfiction writing, I’m still leveling up my fiction craft. Yes, I’m getting better at writing stories faster. Am I where I want to be? Not yet. (Every time I improve as a fiction writer, my nonfiction gets better, too.)
Yes, I have published several books with publishers and self-published more books. However, publishing—especially self-publishing—changes surprisingly fast. At least, it does for me this year. That’s because I’m working on getting my store up.
My store is a Minimum Viable Product right now. That’s because I keep learning how to do things “right.” I wish I could say it’s “all” right. No. But it’s good enough for now.
I have to admit—today was one of those days I wished someone would “just” take care of this for me. But I’m not that kind of person. So I continue to learn how to do all these things in my store.
Today was one of those days where I wish I hadn’t had to invest three hours in figuring out what was wrong. Sigh. However, I now have more items on my checklist. (When I was a software developer, I excelled at off-by-one errors. I made the equivalent of one of those today. Sigh.)
But, I’ve discovered two things that help me want to keep learning: Ask for help so my practice is useful. Then, sleep on what I learned.
Ask for Help
Because I want to learn, I ask for help from people who are much farther along in their mastery than I am. Often, I experiment with what they explain.
That’s especially true for my writing and publishing efforts. (I haven’t focused on my AI efforts because that’s something I can postpone until later. But the more I focus on my writing and publishing, the happier I will be.)
I never ask my fiction colleagues to read and comment on my fiction. Instead, I take classes and send stories to magazines. I also only take classes from writers who’ve proven that they have “mastered” their craft and can teach that craft to others. I don’t take craft classes from fiction writers who’ve only been around for a decade or so. No. I take craft classes from people who have more than a couple of decades of experience with successful books and short stories.
However, I will take publishing-oriented classes from people who have at least several years of experience with the aspects of publishing I want to master, such as my own store.
I treasure my peer writers. However, we are mostly at the same level. I need to learn from people with much more experience who can quickly diagnose where I’m off and offer reasonable help.
Then, after a day like today, I’ll sleep on what I learned.
Sleep Can Reinforce Learning
I’ve never been one of those people who can forgo sleep. Instead, I need as much sleep as I can get! Even better, sleep can reinforce learning. (See Memory and Sleep: How Sleep Cognition Can Change the Waking Mind for the Better for just one paper that explains how this works. My neurologist tells me that good sleep cleans out the “cruft” that accumulates during the day.
Tomorrow, after I sleep on what I learned today, I’ll return to my checklist and see what else I missed. Then, I’ll add that and know what to do the next time.
That’s how I manage to want to keep learning:
- Set goals I can’t quite accomplish yet.
- Learn from people who are much farther ahead than I am.
- Sleep on what I learned so I can adapt my checklist.
How about you?