It’s no secret that I’m an Emergency Medical Technician in
my day job. It’s a gritty profession much of the time. Most of this time, this is me on 911 call:
However, many times, this job is one that takes my stress
level through the roof and then makes me come crashing down like you wouldn’t
believe. While I’m riding the high that precedes the crash-and-burn, I might be
trying to save a life, or doing something as mundane as holding a bucket while
my patient throws up. This, strangely, is the same set of feelings I get when I’m
writing.
The heart-pounding rush of typing at Superman speeds while
the words just come pouring out, and then I’ve said all the things, and my
characters have done ALL THE THINGS, and then, and then…I sleep for, like, a
week because, oh, the crash-and-burn! Oh, the crash and burn.
(Trust me. I wrote
15,000 words in 4 days recently, and I still haven’t recovered).
See, the thing is, writing is a lot like saving lives.
The ambulance service I work for is also a training
facility. We take in those so-shiny-you-need-to-wear-shades new EMT students
and show them the ropes. In 14 years, I’ve done a lot of new-EMT hand holding,
prodding, encouraging, discouraging, cringing and shaking my head. Some of my
students have a natural ability to master the skills needed to save someone’s
life. For others, it will takes months to years before they are fully capable.
This is OK. This is expected. Why?
Because, like writers, some EMT students have the drive and
passion for this job and an immediate ability, while others have the passion
and drive, but need more time to stew, simmer and practice, practice, practice.
One is not better than the other. Both can equal very good, skilled and
reliable EMTs.
And writers!
This is me when one of my students NAILS IT!
I always tell my students to keep three things in mind:
- Fluency
- Competency
- Confidence
Fluency
is when you know the steps needed to perform a key skill. Like intubating a
patient by putting a tube down their throat to help them breathe. You can do it
in your sleep; you can go through the motions in the blink of an eye and not
falter.
For writers, fluency is when the words simply flow from thought-based
ideas into tangible paragraphs and sentences. The end result might not be what
you’re expecting, but you still have the ability to go through the motions and
get it done.
Competency
is when you can perform the steps for a skill in a way that gives the
patient the utmost chance at a favorable outcome. In other words, it means you
know what the hell you’re doing. You know the why, the how and the
what-the-fuck to do if something goes wrong.
For writers, competency is a
misnomer. You can never really be competent in writing the story in your head,
because, let’s face it—even the jumbled pile of horse crap that appears on your
screen after a two a.m. impromptu writing session displays nothing of
competency. Writing just is. Competency comes when you know how to take that
pile of crap and polish it into a cohesive body of work, with syntax and plot
and central conflict and an ending that makes sense. This takes skill, which is born of practice.
This is me when my students does something really dumb (not at a patient's expense, of course. *shifty eyes*):
But I would never laugh at you. I promise.
Confidence is a must have for every
EMT. If you’re not confident when you’re performing a skill or giving a
treatment, you’ve helped no one. You will screw up. You will, likely, someday,
kill someone. Confidence is not optional. The most fluent and competent EMT in
the world will never be a SAFE provider
if she is not confident in her own ability to provide care.
Writers, you will
never get past the mountain that is writing, revising, revising, revising,
critiques, revising, querying, rejection, rejection, rejection, rejection, and
then, all of this again once you land an agent and go on house submission, if
you are not confident. It must be there, in some small way, so that you can mold
and conjure it into a much bigger lump of confidence-clay, to help you succeed.
Confidence doesn’t come early and it doesn’t come often, but it must be there.
And it must be there when you need it for something crucial, like querying or
sending off you manuscript to critique partners. If you don’t believe you have
what it takes to do this job, you’re going to kill all those characters in your
head.
In the process, you’ll hinder your
ability to ever be fluent and competent.
Remember your writer CPR:
Confidence
Practice
Repeat.
Or just do this a while. Guaranteed to make you feel better, if nothing else:
NOW GO WRITE SOMETHING!
