Are You Ready to Have a Real Breakthrough in Your Writing?
By: Shane Mcgrath
Tags: Writing Craft, Writing Tips, Creative Process, Creativity, Writing

Photo by Tatiana Igoscheva on Unsplash

There are many respectable goals a writer may pursue, but one is very compelling: to have a breakthrough.

Personal development master Tony Robbins goes deep on this topic. He elegantly defines a breakthrough as “Those moments in time when the impossible become possible.”

Writing has two distinct stages: the private and the public. In the private, you engage in the process alone, find or develop ideas, and write them. On the public side, you share them with the world.

Let us zoom in on the private side.

The private side is fascinating. It is infinite. The unrealized possibility is as expansive as the universe is. When a writer achieves a breakthrough moment, the writer is tearing down the walls which trap possibility. The creative energy can be explosive and liberating. For brief moments, the writer experiences the transcendent experience of artistic freedom.

When the magic is encapsulated in a product such as a book and shared, the readers get to taste the magic from their own vantage point. Fundamentally, it is deep human connection. It’s one of the reasons writing is a special type of craft.

So, what is the practical path to achieve breakthrough?

While Tony Robbins brings great insight into this topic, there is another way to look at a writing breakthrough which can serve the writer well.

A breakthrough happens when there is a marriage of the mechanical process with the world of possibility. When the writer succeeds, she briefly taps the wellspring of her potential and bring something to life. At its core this process is pure creation.

There is a clear path forward to achieve breakthrough. You must overcome an early challenge by beginning to internalize the mechanics of the writing process itself.

At first the process owns you. It is tiring and defeating. You stare at the blank page and it wins. Your ideas wither. You battle with execution and show up empty. You hesitate, you doubt, you succumb to anything and everything.

Don’t worry, it’s only temporary.

As you work and discover your own personal brand of consistency, you begin to build a sort of muscle. It’s a form of resilience. It lets you crank out 1000 words without hesitation or meet an urgent deadline with less anxiety. You tap into that flow state where productivity is steady and cohesive, not every time, but more times.

All aspects of it, writing down ideas, the research, the drafting, the editing. You want it to become integrated and natural.

Once you achieve this you are on a powerful track to your own breakthrough.

You begin to make connections. Idea to paper happens efficiently. You don’t have a great idea and then stumble and let it slip away (forever). You don’t struggle to find the words to communicate your ideas, your hunches, or to share your observations. You command your voice so you can persuade and entice. There’s a beautiful authority when the writers voice comes alive, it carries a magnitude of experience with it. Your reader may receive your message, not as a saccharine sound bite, but as a reverberating voice in the mind. Your ideas linger in their brain and become useful and durable through time.

You leave an impression and your ideas are remembered, or at least reflected on for some time. The ideas stake residence in the readers mind and give them something of value. In this vast and noisy world, this is an incredible achievement.

I encourage you to seek your own breakthroughs.

Let your practice become a part of your day, as much as your cup of black coffee. You begin to funnel the world into the practice. The dots will connect, assuredly, sometimes when you don’t expect them to.

Beyond this dance of the mechanical with the potential, you’ll have your own special blend of experience. After all, we are all walking unique paths.

The breakthroughs will be yours to keep and savor. Keep writing.