The Search for That Pesky Magic Pill

By Gail Richards - Jun 09 , 2008

This time of year at our house, we spend at least part of each evening watching ESPN‘s Baseball Tonight. Each recap shows the best of the day’s baseball, highlighting exceptional fielding, hitting, and pitching. It’s engaging and entertaining, and never fails to please (—with the exception of when the Red Sox lose). Even if you aren’t a baseball fan, the athletic prowess alone is impressive as the best of the best of the day is capsulized.This level of play doesn’t happen overnight. It happens after hours, days, weeks, and months of fundamentals. It takes practice and repetition. It takes working at the most basic points of the game long and hard.

Earlier this year, the NBA hosted its annual slam dunk competition. This showcase of over-the-top grandstanding is phenomenal to watch, but in a game, such departure from the basics in a game would be cavalier and risky. And, in order to pull these smooth moves, the athletes need a strong command of the basics that make them professional athletes who excel at the game in the first place.

Professional athletes understand that in order to shine on field, court, or diamond, they need complete mastery of the fundamentals. They know that this means revisiting the basics until they are bored silly, never losing site of the obvious and never leaving any skill to chance, no matter how accomplished they know themselves to be.

Your development as a writer is no different. Sometimes the basics for success are boring. Most times the real keys to success are straightforward and unexciting. At no time is there ever a magic pill that excuses you from mastering and honoring the basic steps and considerations that result in solid, completed work.

The search for that pesky magic pill is apparent in the questions and comments we receive for our tele-classes. Recent sessions on interviewing and organization have underscored this. Participants have either loved or hated these classes. They either thank us for a solid reminder or new look at the fundamentals, or they express frustration at how basic the information was.

No one ever said that the fundamentals for success would be fun. Or interesting. Or even new and different from what we already know.

It’s human nature to want the quick fix or the shortcut. If it weren’t, there wouldn’t be so many ads and infomercials that promise overnight youth, weight loss, and wealth. Advertisers sell what the public buys, and the public buys easy answers—whether or not these products work as promised or make sense for the long haul. People will buy the easy answer on the off chance it just might work, because that chance is more appealing than going back to the basics.

When it comes to creating your book, there’s no better way than putting one word after another. It helps to be in an environment you are comfortable writing in, but beyond that, there’s no big secret—put the words on the page. Then, you can go back to review, rework, and rewrite. Just like the pros on ESPN—the finished product will be smooth and polished, but the steps to get it that way, elementary and repetitive.

I wish I had a magic pill to share, but, at least for now, we’ll all have to find success the old-fashioned way.