In Issue #9 of Practicing The Write Stuff, we looked at how to create a Series page for your Amazon books. Of course to create a Series page….you need to have multiple books that work in a Series. My quick viewpoint to share is that writing books in a series is a poor short term play, but a much better long term play depending on how strategically you’re thinking and planning. That could probably be an Issue of its own!
At the end of Issue #9 I said I’d issue an addendum with more thoughts on creating a series page and writing in Series. That’s still to come.
Practicing The Write Stuff is about the confluence of Deliberate Practice, writing, publishing on Amazon KDP, flow, Hero’s Journey (at some stage) and more. In this issue we’re going to look at the ten core principles of Deliberate Practice so there’s always a cross reference from future issues to an issue with summaries of each principle.
Sidebar: these principles were identified based primarily on the works of Anders Ericsson and are what I’ve used as both a music (bass guitar) teacher and student over the last 15 years.
Here are the ten principles:
1. Identification
2. Isolation
3.The Three Zone Theory Of Learning
4. Practice Repetitions
5. Mental Representations
6. Feedback
7. Practice Auditing
8. Sequential Learning
9. Slow Motion Practice
10.The 80-20 Rule
Let’s look at them one by one.
Principle #1: Identification
This principle is about identifying exactly what you need to be practicing. It might sound obvious but it’s a crucial step in any program aimed at improving skills.
Identification of what to practice can be done in the following ways:
• As a result of finding ‘holes’ in your technique in the audit process
(Principle 6).
• As a result of feedback from a coach, teacher or mentor
(Principle 6).
• As the next part of a learning sequence (Principle 8).
• As part of regular practice review (Principle 6).
Though it may seem obvious, long term improvement in any discipline begins with a clear identification of what needs to be practiced in every practice session.
If you ever sit down to practice writing (or anything else) and don’t have a practice plan in front of you that structures your practice in alignment with your goals, then spend a few minutes working out exactly what you need to practice.
And then practice that.
Principle #2: Isolation
This principle follows on from identifying exactly what you need to
practice by isolating that musical element in a way that allows you to
focus only on that element during practice.
Isolation can also be applied sequentially, too, following the guidelines of
sequential learning (Principle 8).
Key Point: one of the quickest ways to make progress as a writer is to identify and isolate specific writing elements causing you problems. Then create practice exercises designed to fix that problem area. And do the work.
Depending on where you are in your writing journey, you might need help to identify exactly what’s causing you problems and designing exercises designed to fix this. A good coach or teacher is invaluable for this.
Principle #3: The Three Zone Theory Of Learning
The three zone theory of learning is a metaphor for the learning process, but I’ve found it useful for teaching and for my own practice. This idea can be used at both a macro level and a micro level.
The Three Zone Theory was covered at a macro level in Issue 5 of PTWS:
Issue 5 - The Three Zone Model Of Learning (Macro)
And the Three Zone Theory at a micro level was covered in Issue 7:
Issue 7 - The Three Zone Model Of Learnign (Micro)
Principle #4: Practice Repetitions
Practice repetitions are one of the most misunderstood elements of the practice process. I’m going to use a metaphor to explain what a practice repetition does to your brain, and why it’s so important.
First, imagine that your brain as a three dimensional circle the size of a basketball filled with thousands of tiny marbles. Those marbles represent the hundred billion or so neurons that your brain is composed of.
Second, here’s what happens when you want to try something new:
•The CPU, or control part, of your brain has to send a message to the parts of the brain that control the limbs or organs needed to execute the task you want to do.
•The CPU part of the brain communicates with those other parts of the brain via electrical pulses.
•The electrical pulses travel between the two parts of the brain literally by jumping from neuron to neuron. That dissipates the amount of energy in the electrical pulse.
• For new tasks that have a degree of complexity, the majority of the electrical energy in the electrical pulse is expended by the time the pulse reaches the target part of the brain.
• The target part of the brain has to send what’s left of the electrical signal to the limbs or organs that it needs to direct.
• Because the electrical pulse is now weak, the ensuing movements are often commensurately weak. This results in your first attempts at something new being tentative and poor.
Third, when you repeat this activity multiple times, the electrical pulse starts to form a path, or a channel. Less energy is now needed in the transfer of the electrical impulse from neuron to neuron.
More energy arrives at the target part of the brain and is available to direct the limbs needed to do the task. So the task starts to feel easier.
Fourth, as you repeat this activity multiple times more, your brain generates a substance called myelin. This acts like an insulating material and makes the transference of electrical energy more efficient, leading to more electrical energy arriving at the target part of the brain. Leading to improved performance.
You’ll have experienced this in anything you’ve ever learned. Learning to drive. Learning to read and write. Learning a language. Learning a musical instrument. It doesn’t matter whether the discipline is mental or physical, this learning process is involved.
So practice repetitions are a key component in the learning process.
But there’s a caveat - that I’ve named ‘The Repetition Paradox.’
With anything you are learning, if you practice what you can already do the brain automates that task so that it’s easier for you to do. But you don’t get better at your chosen discipline, you just get better at the specific task (you can already do) that you are practicing.
This is the repetition paradox in a nutshell.
Practice repetitions are needed in order to acquire skill at anything. But, there will come a point where repetitions only automate the process of using that skill. Improvement stops. Scientific studies suggest that performance atrophies without further meaningful practice.
Principle 3 (the Three Zone Theory), Principle 6 (Feedback) and Principle 7 (Auditing) all come into play to ensure that you don’t get caught in this repetition paradox.
Principle #5: Mental Representations
More detailed information on mental representations can be found in Chapter 3 of Anders Ericsson’s book Peak. This is a complex subject and deserves its own issue(s) of PTWS.
Mental representations are a cross between mental models and domain knowledge of your field. Mental representations are a byproduct of the practice process. Studies found that chess grandmasters weren’t inherently cleverer than non grandmasters, nor did they have better memories.
What sets grandmasters apart from ordinary chess players is their detailed mental representations of the game derived through years of study. For every move in the game, an average player might have two or three possibilities and see two or three moves ahead. A chess grandmaster has hundreds of possibilities for each move and can see multiple moves into the future.
If you have your practice structured correctly, mental representations are built by that practice. For example, let’s assume a mentor or otherwise has pointed out that you write in passive voice too much. And assigned you a series of sequental exercises to improve that (which is Principle #8 below).
The first exercise: you are given a number of sentences and have to identify which of the sentences is written in active voice and which is written in passive voice. This starts to build your mental representation of what passive voice or active voice is.
The second exercise: you are given a number of sentences written in passive voice and have to rewrite them in active voice. This deepens and expands your mental representations of passive voice and active voice. (And note: you need feedback at every step - that’s Principle #6.)
The third exercise: you are given a number of exercises where you are given the bare bones of what’s going to happen in a sentence and you have to write that sentence in active voice.
And so on.
Each exercise deepens your mental representation of active voice and passive voice. And, provided you do enough practice repetitions and get feedback to keep you moving forwards correctly, you will get to a point where your use of active voice will become automatic.
At this point your mental representation of active voice will feed into all your writing.
And you can repeat this process with other foundational skills so that you create a mental representation of writing that includes multiple areas like this. The above exercises would be for beginner writers, or writers who have foundational holes in their writing skills. Advanced writers would expand their writing toolbox by doing similar exercises with other writing topics.
Principle #6: Feedback
There are two reasons why obtaining feedback on your writing - whether practice writings or writings that you publish is so important. Counter intuitively, these reasons are almost the opposite of each other.
Reason 1 - Identifying Errors
In Principle 4 we talked about the importance of practice repetition.
If you practice something over and over, your brain will eventually learn to perform it. The more practice repetitions you perform, the more subconscious the performance of that practice activity will be. The by product of those practice repetitions is that the mental representation you create of that activity are built on the practice that you put in.
If your practice is flawed though, the brain will automate the playing of the activity you’ve practiced including the flaws. And those flaws will be built into the mental representations you create.
So it’s vital to identify errors and eliminate them as early as possible in the learning process. Ideally you’ll eliminate basic learning mistakes before you start building mental representations using practice repetitions by learning as perfectly as possible in the first place.
Reason 2 - Identifying When You’re Practicing In The Comfort Zone
Despite talking about ways of ensuring that you’re practicing in the learning zone at all times, practicing at the edge of your ability level is hard. There’s also a grey area where practice repetitions go from being learning zone practice to comfort zone practice.
Feedback helps identify when this is happening so you can ensure that the bulk of your practice is meaningful, and is focused on developing your ability.
These two different types of feedback will happen at different stages of the learning cycle for you. Both are equally important and equally crucial to long term improvement as a writer
Sidebar: If you ever get the chance to talk to an elite performer in any discipline, or watch an elite performer train, it’s a beneficial educational experience. What you’ll quickly come to realize is that feedback is a constant part of the practice process. Elite performers often have a full time coach, or coaches for different aspects of their discipline. Which gives them real time feedback.
Principle #7: Practice Auditing
In the UK, the word ‘audit’ is used to describe an official financial inspection of the accounts a company. A “practice audit” is the term I’ve given to a regular review of a practice schedule designed to deliver constant and continuous improvement.
Here are the functions of a practice audit:
• Forces you to review your practice and progress at regular intervals ranging from weekly to monthly to quarterly.
• Helps you identify areas where you are progressing, and whereyou may have slipped into the comfort zone, and helps you identify where you are not making progress.
• Ensures that you are always working towards your practice goals - and that as high a percentage as possible of your practice activities are geared towards meeting those practice goals.
• Keeps your practice connected to your practice goals - especially if your practice goals are split into long term, medium term and short term.
Principle #8: Sequential Learning
Sequential learning can be summarized like this:
• Learning is split into discrete steps.
• These steps are arranged in an order that starts out with the basics, develops ability with those basics through practice repetitions and mistake identification and fixing, and then proceeds to the next logical step.
• By proceeding from one step to the next logical step, and then the next after that, the student is always practicing in the learning zone and will make constant and consistent improvement.
Sequential learning is not a new concept, it’s hardwired into the traditional teaching methods used in schools. Here’s how it works in classical music education as an example:
• A new concept is introduced by the teacher (e.g. a new note, a new chord, a new rhythmic subdivision).The curriculumfor classical music has been developed over hundreds of years and though new pieces and exercises get added from time to time, the curriculum is built learning.
• Exercises to practice the new concept are assigned to start the process of building skill using practice repetitions which lead to building mental representations.
• A study piece of music (that tends to be shorter for beginner students) will be assigned to the student.
• Performance of the study piece will be assessed by the teacher to check the student understands the new concept and is executing it correctly.
• Mistakes are highlighted for the purpose of correcting them.
• When the teacher is satisfied, then a new concept is introduced and the cycle starts again.
Two Benefits Of Sequential Learning
The first benefit of sequential learning is that as you go through a learning sequence, your abilities grow at a constant and consistent rate. That’s because sequential learning dovetails with the three zone theory of learning. As you master something and it becomes a ‘comfort zone’ activity, you move to the next exercise(s) in the sequence and you’re back in the learning zone.
The second benefit of sequential learning is that if your learning sequence is set up correctly your learning won’t be derailed by encountering an exercise that’s a ‘panic zone’ activity rather than a learning zone activity.
Sidebar: A Problems For Writers Who Want To Improve
Unlike classical music, there’s no established sequential learning method set out that can be followed. So you’ve either got to find a teacher who understands deliberate practice, how the brain learns AND sequential learning. Or you’ve got to work it out for yourself. Both are tough gigs.
We’ll look at sequential learning in more detail in a future issue. And hat tip to my first mentor Sean D’Souza who introduced this concept to me.
Principle #9: Slow Motion Practice
I’ve included slow motion practice in this Issue as it is one of my ten core principles of deliberate practice. While slow motion practice works well for disciplines with a physical component, it’s not of much use for practicing writing.
So for now, I’ve made a note of it, but it’s not one of the primary practice tools you’ll use to improve your writing.
Principle 10: The 80-20 Principle
Two books you should have in your library if you don’t already: The 80-20 Principle by Richard Koch and 80-20 Sales And Marketing by Perry Marshall.
A one sentence summary of the two: 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts.
Sidebar: the numbers in the 80-20 Principle aren’t exact, they are guidelines - in some disciplines it’s 75-25. Or 90-10. Or 95-5. The principle that holds is a small percentage of your efforts creates a large percentage of your results.
The conclusion to draw here is this: if you can identify what activities are in the 20% of activities that give 80% of your results, and then do more of these activities - and at the same time you do less of the 80% of activities that only result in 20% of your progress - then you can either make the same level of progress with a smaller investment of practice time or you can make the practice time you put in much more efficient and increase the rate at which your practice is leading to improvements.
However there’s a caveat. Applying the 80-20 Principle isn’t a one size fits all. For example, the 20% activities for an email copywriter are different from the 20% activities for a travel blogger. And as you grow as a writer the 20% activities will change too.
That’s surface level 80-20. There’s a fractal element to it that makes using this principle even more powerful. If you take the 20% of activities that give you 80% of your results and apply the 80-20 Principle to that…..then 20% of 20% gives you 80% of the 80%. So now, just 4% of your activities give you 64% of your results.
Applying that idea to your practice will boost your practice effectiveness massively. In a future episode of PTWS we’ll talk about how Jerry Rice went from 16th pick in his draft year to the #1 player of all time by practicing the 4%. (For non US readers…Jerry Rice played the US version of ‘football’ - so grid iron, not soccer.)
The Ride Out
This article is an overview of the principles of Deliberate Practice that I’ve found most useful in both teaching my bass students and in acquiring skills myself. Over the upcoming weeks and months with PTWS we’ll talk about these in more detail, both individually and how they work together, but this issue will be one that you can come back to as a guide when you’re creating your own practice activities to boost your writing.