I don’t like to waste time.
There.
I said it.
I don’t like to waste time.
But I’m guilty. I waste time ALL THE TIME.
That’s why when I was trapped on an airplane for nine hours this summer on my way home from Barcelona, I decided to be a productive grown-up. The in-flight entertainment system included the opportunity to dig into courses taught by world-class instructors through MasterClass.com. I don’t have a membership, but I’m a sucker for an invitation to learn something new for free. This was my chance.
With a day-long flight ahead of me and no desire to close my eyes because—AWKWARD—I scrolled through the available options and chose Malcolm Gladwell’s master class on Non-fiction Writing. Twenty-four lessons. Six hours. Master instruction from a critically-acclaimed author.
As it turns out, watching six straight hours of content wasn’t that hard. What was hard was taking notes because the rest of the passengers had shuttered the windows, the flight attendants had turned off the lights, and most everyone, including my seatmate, were trying to sleep. My hand-written notes are a little sloppy, to say the least!
Malcolm Gladwell’s Masterclass on Writing
Here’s what I learned:
Writing and life aren’t all that different. In fact, you may have even heard that writing is thinking. That’s not a new idea.
"I don't know what I think until I try to write it down."—Joan Didion
'Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard.—David McCullough
"Writing is thinking on paper. Anyone who thinks clearly can write clearly, about anything at all."—William Zinsser
And a lot of writers don’t believe in Writer’s Block, either, which is simply being unable to think about what to write next or how to proceed with the story. Malcolm’s advice? Just keep writing. “A lot of problems,” he says, “are resolved in the doing.”
And he continues, “You can always re-write. Make use of that extraordinary freedom.”
Extraordinary Freedom
EXTRAORDINARY FREEDOM was the phrase that jumped out at me. There is freedom in being able to re-write, to edit. We get to write and rewrite the story of our lives over and over again.
And I love that. It reminds me of this scene about editing from an old episode of Everybody Loves Raymond. In it, Raymond gives a toast at his brother, Robert’s wedding, a wedding in which everything goes comically awry. He explains editing better than anyone I’ve ever heard. You can watch the entire speech here:
Raymond gives a toast at his brother, Robert’s wedding. The theme: Editing. “Keep the good ones.”
I like the idea of applying the editing principle to my own life. Ask anyone who’s ever eaten anything from my kitchen. I mess things up all them time. You know how expensive food is these days! We can’t throw anything out. Sometimes the very best dishes are born from what started out as a veritable disaster. So I just keep stirring. Add a little of this. A little of that. Suddenly, something new and even better emerges. (Well, most of the time)
As I write this, four months have passed since the coffee shop closed. One of my favorite parts of owning the shop was sharing my own recipes. We launched a new menu last January, with our signature item being a homemade biscuit waffle—essentially scratch-made biscuit dough that we cooked on a waffle iron. The dough was tedious to make and involved grating pounds and pounds of frozen butter everyday. It was both labor intensive and messy. I found myself staying late to do it on more than one occasion. I remember racking my brain trying to figure out an easier way to make a homemade biscuit waffle that wouldn’t sacrifice flavor for convenience.
EDITING IS ABOUT SIMPLIFICATION
Then one day, at home, I was making my own biscuits using a recipe passed down from my grandmother to my mother to me. It was easy, shelf stable, and could be mixed up easily by anyone—no special skills required. The catch was that it included one very unconventional ingredient—an ingredient I didn’t share until I first had several people taste the waffles made with the new recipe. An ingredient that would be added along with the milk just before the dough hit the waffle iron. The new recipe was a hit! Slightly sweeter and fluffier than the original version, we immediately adopted it.
You see, there’s EXTRAORDINARY FREEDOM to re-write what isn’t working.
I used to put a lot of pressure on myself to get things right the first time. But why? That’s not how the world really works. New ideas are tested and evaluated, revised and simplified. The first draft is never the best draft. It’s complicated and messy. And that’s a good thing!
That waffle mix went from seven ingredients to four, and prep time went from about 10 minutes per batch to just two. Not only that, the new waffle also cost less to make. In the restaurant biz, that’s a big deal.
That’s the power of EDITING.
I want to believe that the principle at work in making book drafts and waffle recipes more palatable can surely be applied to other crises of concern.
Even the big questions, like “What should I do with my life?” or “How do I know I’m on the right track?” can be answered by applying the extraordinary freedom available to anyone who has the courage to EDIT along the way.
The story that’s being written can always be re-written. Do you agree?
What problem are you working on today? Take hold of your own extraordinary freedom. Then let me know how things are going or how I can help. I’d love to cheer you on!
Want more good stuff?
P.S. Hey, friend, I know you’re wondering about that secret ingredient. I’ll tell you—it was MAYONNAISE! Before you say, “Ew…gross…just remember mayo is basically just oil and eggs and when you add that plus milk to self rising flour and a little sugar, you get something pretty delicious!