This is The Write Now Podcast with Sarah Werner, Episode 113: The Writing Plateau.

Welcome to Write Now, the podcast that helps all writers, aspiring, professional, and otherwise, to find the time, energy, and courage you need to pursue your passion and write. I’m your host, Sarah Werner. And today, we’re going to talk about the writing plateau. I think I recall learning about what a plateau was in fourth-grade social studies, which was sort of like cultural studies, geography and geology, and some other stuff all wrapped up into one. So in geological or geographical terms, a plateau is an area of relatively high level ground. Basically it’s like a mountain, but if you chopped off the top of the mountain. And so you go up and then you go straight across and then you go down again, or you just go up and then you go straight across and you don’t see where it tapers off, if it tapers off at all. If you’re still curious about what a plateau looks like, you can look at the image that goes along with this week’s episode 113. You can see behind the words plateau an actual picture of a plateau.

A plateau used in a more metaphorical sense, is something that you may have heard of if you’ve done work in weight loss. And so content warning, we are going to talk just a little bit, and very briefly about the term plateau as it is used in weight loss. If you’re like me, if you’ve ever tried to lose weight, for whatever reason, you may, at some point during your weight loss journey, hit what they call a plateau. It’s the place where you’re making progress and you’re losing weight and then all of a sudden, even though you’re still working really hard, you stop losing weight. They say that you have hit a plateau.

And depending on how you view weight loss and your own weight loss journey, if that is something you have ever experienced, this can be frustrating. This can be terrifying. This can be any number of things. But basically, you hit a point beyond which it is extremely difficult to progress. Sometimes your body is just not meant to lose more weight despite what our society’s beauty standards tell you, or maybe you need to switch up your routine in some way to give your body a new challenge. Whatever the reason, this is something that happens, and it is also something that happens when we are writing.

I may have mentioned this in a previous episode of the Write Now Podcast, but I’ve recently been reading and rereading Cal Newport‘s wonderful book called So Good They Can’t Ignore You. I’ve talked about one of Cal Newport‘s other books called Deep Work on this show before. And similarly, I highly recommend So Good They Can’t Ignore You as well. The reason I picked up this book was that at its heart it’s really about learning to love your work. Cal Newport in this book sort of debunks the myth that you need to be passionate about something before you find your true life’s calling. So like, oh, in order to be a painter, you have to have loved painting since you were two years old, or in order to love accounting, you had to have started your own junior accounting firm when you were seven. And actually, this is probably something that I could do a whole Write Now podcast episode on is that a lot of people don’t quote-unquote follow their passion into their career and that it’s actually in Mr. Newport’s words, terrible advice to follow your passion.

It’s a really interesting concept and it’s a really interesting book, but that’s not the most interesting thing that I pulled out of it. Rather, his talk about how we progress in our lives and our careers, and as creators was really what stuck with me. In the book, he talks a little bit about when we’re first starting out in something that we love to do, so say writing, we start hungry, which is to say, we start with a lot of passion and excitement and exuberance, and we want to learn, and we want to grow as fast as we can, and we’re just really into this whole thing. And we work really hard and maybe we take some classes and we just throw ourselves into being the absolute best writer we can grow to be.

But after a while, and this is a quote from the book, “If you’re not careful to keep pushing forward, your improvement can taper off to what the performance scientist, Anders Ericsson called an acceptable level where you can remain stuck.” You’re growing, you’re growing, you’re learning, you’re practicing, you’re building your craft. In the words of Malcolm Gladwell, you are putting in your 10,000 hours toward mastery. And then you hit a point where your growth tapers off and you hit the flat part of that plateau. This is in the words of the book, a quote-unquote acceptable level at which we then remain stuck.

Basically, we progress to a place where we get really good at what we do and either consciously or unconsciously, it might be different for you; we ease off the gas pedal of that really eager and ambitious growth. Consciously or unconsciously, we rest on our laurels. And this is really, really, really interesting to me because that upward trajectory, I’m not a hundred percent sure it is sustainable. And we talked about this a little bit in the survival mode and thriving episodes from a few weeks ago. You can’t just burn our engines super hot all the time, or we will burn them out. You work really, really hard. You level up, you get to the place where you’ve leveled up, and you’re there, you’re at the top. You’ve arrived. You’re good enough. You feel like you’re good enough because you know you always were good enough. And the view from up there, it’s really nice. You can see all of the little baby writers below learning their craft and say, oh, I remember when I was at that stage of my writing growth.

And here at the top of this plateau, this is where a lot of writers and in fact, most writers remain. So my question for you is, is there anything wrong with being on top of that plateau? And I want you to think about that for a second. You have worked really hard to get to the top of this plateau, don’t you deserve to rest for a little while? Of course, the answer is yes because you don’t need to earn rest. You deserve rest. That’s how we recharge our writing superpowers.

But a better question is, do we stay there? I know I reference this a lot, but back in episode 88, which is called The Dangers of Comparison, this adds yet another danger onto the list because often when we are in a place where we judge ourselves to good enough, what we’re doing is we’re looking at other writers and assessing their we’ll call it skill level or ability level as writers. For a lot of us, that’s how we tell if we are good enough because we do it by comparing ourselves not against our own potential, but against what other writers are producing, what other writers are publishing, and getting paid for, and getting away with. Or maybe we’ve put in our 10,000 hours and we can proudly say, “Well, I am a master of my craft.” What happens to our potential? What happens when we say, “Well, I’m at the top,” or, “Well, I’ve made it,” or, “Well, I’m finally as good as … ” insert author’s name here. Is that when we rest on our laurels for the rest of our careers? Is that when we stop pushing ourselves to learn, and grow, and improve?

Like I said earlier, hitting a plateau is not a bad thing. And I think it’s going to happen to us multiple times over the course of our writing journey. In fact, I like to think of it a little bit as leveling up. So like in a video game, you work really hard and you hit a new level and you’re like, oh, the view from here is great, now it’s time to progress to the next level. Hitting a level and staying there for a while, assessing where you’re at, understanding how you’re feeling about where you are and about your current skill level, that’s not a bad thing. Taking a rest is not a bad thing. I want to say that extra loud. Taking a rest is not a bad thing.

There was a point in my writing career when I didn’t think it was okay to rest. And like I said earlier, that leads to burnout. It’s not healthy. But after we rest, once we’re recharged, we have to decide what we’re going to do. If you’re on top of a plateau, what’s your next move, or do you want to move at all? Some writers have made very successful careers out of sitting on top of their plateau, giving their readers what they want, making their publishers money, really enjoying the fruits of their earlier labor. This is also extremely apparent with many musicians who deliver album after album of very similar music. And in fact, when a musician levels up and they release one album that sounds a certain way and then they go create their next album and it is completely different from their first one, fans often get upset that they’ve changed, that this doesn’t sound like the bands that we know and love, that they’ve gone In a different direction and we don’t really like it.

There’s definitely risk in leveling up. There’s definitely a risk that comes with looking for the next step up off of your current plateau. But I also happen to believe that artists who take risks are often and usually rewarded for it. Maybe this comes from me being, I think that years ago, I called it being a possibility addict. I have a very close and potentially unhealthy relationship. I want it and I want it all. And I go crazy when I am denied by myself or by other people, possibility. And I’m one of those creators who would rather take a risk and explore new possibilities than stay in a place where I’m comfortable.

Now, I talk about this at length in episode 98, which is called Writer’s Risk and Potential Loss. But with every risk we take, with every level we try to achieve, with every step we climb, while there is the possibility of loss, there is also the possibility of gain. I also think there is simply immense inherent value in being willing to challenge yourself, in wanting to grow, in wanting to improve. And again, that’s never going to come as a purely upward, straight, diagonal, whatever trajectory. It’s going to come in steps. It’s going to come and plateaus. As you level up, reassess, adjust, and continue onward. But I think it’s the continuing onward that’s really important here. I don’t want you to attempt to grow unsustainably. That’s that whole hustle culture, constant growth. It’s not sustainable.

What I do want is that even when you do hit a plateau where you feel like, oh, I’m pretty good, that you don’t stop there, or that you don’t stop there forever because you have so much potential. You have so many possibilities ahead of you in your creative career. And I think that you can get to a place where you’re good enough, but you can always also get to a place where you are better. So here’s my question for you. What is your plateau? What does it look like for you to be on a plateau as a writer? What is an acceptable level of mastery for you in regards to your craft? What does that look like? And then the next question that I would ask you, what lies beyond that for you? What does it look like for you to get even better? What does it look like for you to grow and challenge yourself and truly innovate?

And I think that’s what I’m getting at here. I think a lot of writers want very deeply in their hearts to change the world. They want to leave a mark. They want to leave some kind of legacy. They want to be remembered for being artists and masters of their craft. But they’re also not ready or willing to innovate, to truly take risks and follow their own potential past what they see everyone else around them doing. What’s the next level up for you? What does that look like? How can you get there? And do you want to be there? Because like I said earlier, constantly challenging and improving your work is really, really hard and it takes dedication and effort, and it’s not worth it for everyone. Not everyone feels like that’s worth it when they can make decent money being on this plateau or that plateau.

But as much as I’m here to encourage you, I’m also here to challenge you, just because that’s something I like to do, and it’s something that I like to do for myself, and it’s something that I have seen value in. And I hope that you do too. I have one final question for you for today’s episode. And I think that how you respond to this can be very, very telling. The question is, does the idea of being a lifelong student inspire you or terrify you? And by that, I mean, are you willing to admit that you might never be at the ultimate top of your game?

And I know This sounds paradoxical because we’re on a journey to become the best writers we can be, right? That’s the whole reason that we’re moving above and beyond our plateaus. But does knowing that it will always be just out of reach as you continue to learn and grow and discover infinite new levels to climb, does that inspire you or does it terrify you? Because there is no finish line to being a writer unless you establish one yourself. If you say, “Once I write a book as good as Cal Newport’s, then I’ll be done. I’ll be a good enough writer.” That’s a finish line you can establish yourself, or otherwise known as a goal. But the question is once you hit that goal, once you cross that finish line, are you going to stay on that plateau, or are you going to look for the next one?

Okay. Say that we’re on a plateau currently, how the heck do we get off of the plateau either to slide gently down, which I don’t know if that’s something you’re interested in doing, or how do we find the next level up so that we can start climbing again and start challenging ourselves? Fortunately, we live in a world of endless possibilities. So if you feel like you are currently on a plateau and you don’t know how to get off of the plateau or where to go next, I have some suggestions for you.

First and foremost, read more, take in more media, read books that are in your genre. If you’re a horror writer, read more horror books. But also read more stuff that is not in your genre. If you are a sci-fi writer, try reading a mystery, or a romance, or just some classic fiction. If you’re a fiction writer, read some nonfiction. If you’re a non-fiction writer, read some fiction, read some comic books, get a big pile of graphic novels from your local comic store, read TV pilots. A lot of them are available for free online, read new writers who you haven’t read before from countries you’ve never visited, read as diversely as you possibly can.

Next, keep an open mind, never stop being curious. It’s really easy for a lot of us to shut down possibility with judgment. Some of us may say, “Well, I can’t read science fiction because it’s stupid and I hate it.” This is going to impede your growth as a writer. Get curious. Ask, why do people love this genre so much? What’s in it that speaks to people? What can I take away from this reading experience, and learn from, and apply to my own craft? Alongside that, cultivate an eternal student mindset. Because let’s face it, there is so much in this rich and beautiful world, it is not possible for us to learn and know everything. But it is possible for us to continually learn and grow and challenge ourselves. And whether you do that by reading more, reading more diversely, or even taking classes, doing different writing exercises, joining different writing groups, having different discussions about what it means to write and to create, and to be a writer, I encourage you to do all of this. They will help you grow so much in your own journey.

Finally, I encourage you to challenge yourself while you are writing. Whether that means trying something new, maybe writing from a new perspective, maybe writing in a different genre, maybe journaling before you write each day, and really exploring what is going on in your grain. I encourage you, whatever it is that makes you weird and unique and different, seek out that weirdness, follow that Weirdness. I think it will help you not only develop your voice and your confidence as a creator, but I think it will also help take your writing to that next level. This week I encourage you to think about where you are right now, where you want to be as a writer, and then what’s even beyond that. What is your current plateau? What is an acceptable quality to you? And are you ready and eager to move beyond that?

If you have questions, if you have comments about this episode, I would love to hear your thoughts. I would love to hear about any plateaus that you are currently experiencing or that you have been on in the past. I would love to hear your thoughts about being an eternal student. I would love to know just what your experience has been with all of this. And so if you’d like to provide a comment or engage in conversation regarding this topic, please go out to the show notes for today’s episode. Once again, that’s out at sarahwerner.com, and this is episode 113, and navigate to the show notes for this episode.

And if you scroll down to the bottom of the show notes, there is a place for comments. And the comments section for these episodes has really been blowing up lately in the best way and I’m so grateful for that. I do read and respond to every single comment I receive out on my website. And so I would love to hear from you. I would love to hear your thoughts about plateaus and about this whole concept of mastering your craft and what that really means.

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All right. And with that, this has been episode 113 of the Write Now Podcast, the podcast that helps all writers, aspiring, professional, and otherwise to find the time, energy, and courage, you need to pursue your passion and write. I’m Sarah Werner and I am addicted to possibility.