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The Art Class Parable

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sending an email series of writing tips.

These tips will help you become a better writer. However, you don’t need them to get started. The most important part of the cohort is taking action and publishing!

Now, let's kick things off.

To become a better writer, first change your mindset.

Change your mindset to embrace imperfection on the path toward growth.

Why?

Writing is a craft. Like all crafts, it takes practice to improve. Practice means that you must overcome the fear of publishing and be willing to share more of your work.

The book Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland illustrates this concept with the Art Class Parable. In the story, a ceramics teacher splits the class into two groups.

Group Quantity is graded on the sheer number of pots they produce over the course of the semester, while Group Quality is graded on the excellence of a single masterpiece they create.

At the end of the semester, the two groups are evaluated.

Surprisingly, Group Quantity produces both higher quantity and higher quality work as compared to Group Quality.

The Art Class Parable teaches a valuable lesson in writing: publishing more of your writing will counterintuitively lead to both higher quantity and higher quality.

So, change your mindset. Be willing to ship more of your writing, even when it’s uncomfortable.

And through practice and iteration, become a better writer.

The Art Class Parable

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sending an email series of writing tips.

These tips will help you become a better writer. However, you don’t need them to get started. The most important part of the cohort is taking action and publishing!

Now, let's kick things off.

To become a better writer, first change your mindset.

Change your mindset to embrace imperfection on the path toward growth.

Why?

Writing is a craft. Like all crafts, it takes practice to improve. Practice means that you must overcome the fear of publishing and be willing to share more of your work.

The book Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland illustrates this concept with the Art Class Parable. In the story, a ceramics teacher splits the class into two groups.

Group Quantity is graded on the sheer number of pots they produce over the course of the semester, while Group Quality is graded on the excellence of a single masterpiece they create.

At the end of the semester, the two groups are evaluated.

Surprisingly, Group Quantity produces both higher quantity and higher quality work as compared to Group Quality.

The Art Class Parable teaches a valuable lesson in writing: publishing more of your writing will counterintuitively lead to both higher quantity and higher quality.

So, change your mindset. Be willing to ship more of your writing, even when it’s uncomfortable.

And through practice and iteration, become a better writer.