Perry Belcher has something on his Success blog right now (click here) about a fast, easy, systematic way to write a book. Perry proposed this step-by-step process and solicited comments. One of the common comments that came back was the key to writing a book is being passionate.
All of the people who recommended passion were not professional writers. By the way, neither is the guy in this picture. Professional writers, that is, people who pay their bills based on how much money they can make selling what they write, are not thoughtful people who stare meaningfully off into space. Nor are we people who follow our passions and only work ourselves up into a working mode when we are suitably emotionally engaged. Professional writers dress badly, work at messy desks, have piles of paper everywhere, never get off the phone, and generally look crabby.
A competent writer can write about anything providing that writer is a good researcher or can get the background material. In other words, I am absolutely positive I could write a book about how directional drilling changed the oil industry or Forex trading principles or gastric bypass surgery. I am passionate about none of those things.
In fact, I think passion would absolutely interfere with the writing process. Writing is like plumbing. It’s a job that requires specific competencies. Writing is a lot like accounting; it’s about procedures and rules. Writing is like selling hot dogs, in that you have to be able to market what you make.
I think a lot of non-writers glamorize writing and make it seem like it’s all about passion and glamor and the sophisticated world of ideas. Well, it is about ideas, but most of those ideas are wrung out of reams of printouts. Most writers squint at a screen or talk on the phone most of the day, trying to drum up enough facts to stitch together into a coherent article.
Most writers worry about things like footnotes and sources and fact-checking, not whether or not the muse has struck.
Passion would interfere with the basic procedures of writing. It would cause you to get swept away and not want to view your subject matter objectively. I think passionate people develop blindness toward the objects of their affection ("love is blind") and writers don’t ever want to be blind. Writers need to understand objections so that they can prepare counters.
Passion also makes you emotional and that causes you to react rather than act. It can also prompt your reactions to be too strong. I mean, when you’re in love, it’s fun for you … but you seem kind of sappy to your friends.
What do you need to write a book? I’ve written more than one and Perry’s approach is more right than he might suspect. It’s about a systematic approach and hammering away at it a little every day.
Passion? If you have to depend on passion to write a book, you wouldn’t get it done.
