Writing is a common occurrence in life as a student because, whether we like it or not, our GPA’s will plummet like the Titanic if we don’t turn in that essay on time.

An average person writes about 10 million words in a lifetime, greatly varying in amount depending on their professions and lifestyles.

The average Oxford English dictionary contains six hundred-thousand words, all ordered alphabetically in nearly 22 thousand pages. In your lifetime, you’ll write about 17 dictionaries worth of essays, emails, texts, and notes.

We then proceed to string those dictionaries’ worth of words into sentences to share our thoughts with others and describe the stories of our lives.

By understanding the discipline behind literary masterpieces, it can offer valuable insight to tackling essays, improving focus, and developing better discipline overall.

There are people in the world born with natural talent, poetry sprouting out of their mouths the moment they are born, with a way with words that paint fantasies for the listeners. The rest of us can only climb so high before we’re smacked in the face by the glass ceiling. We kick rocks and grumble about how the big boys and girls won’t play with us. 

For the rest of us, writing is a skill we have to practice and practice repeatedly until our thoughts can be clearly articulated. It only makes sense to learn from the masters.

Although it is easier to chart their massive success up as talent and a chance encounter with luck, that is only half of the equation. The other part is an incredibly efficient that keeps the best authors wired towards finishing their work that readers immediately flock to.  

One thing that all the best authors have in common despite the wildly different styles of living, as a dedicated full-time author or as a working mother of children who can only work before the school bus arrives, they always start early in the morning.

Renowned Japanese author and essayist, Haruki Murakami, is best known for his novel Norwegian Woods which demonstrates his  straightforward and simple writing style that resonates with readers of all ages.

In a 2004 Paris interview, Murakami describes his insane morning routine and equally challenging physical habits.

According to Murakami “When I’m in a writing mode for a novel, I get up at four a.m. and work for five to six hours. In the afternoon, I run for ten kilometers or swim for fifteen hundred meters (or do both), then I read a bit and listen to some music. I go to bed at nine p.m.”

It’s no coincidence that Murakami makes time for his goals before the day begins to get out of control. By prioritizing his most important goals at the beginning, he doesn’t have to worry about it the rest of the day or trying to squeeze as much time out of his day for writing.

By making way for your most important tasks at the first chance, you free up the rest of the day. Even if you don’t get much done that day, you can rest assured that your most important tasks have been completed.

Setting daily goals are also common traits shared by many successful people. Starting the day with a goal gives you a sense of purpose and serves as a map towards the direction your day is heading.

Master of horror stories, Stephen King, has published a mind boggling fifty novels which have sold over 350 million copies over a career spanning forty years. 

In an interview with Game of Thrones author, George R. R. Martin, he asks King how he works so fast and gets so much writing done, claiming that in the time it takes him to finish three chapters King has already published three books.

“The way that I work,”says King, “ I try to get out there and I try to get six pages a day.” 

By setting out each day with a clear goal in mind, you will know which direction you expect your day to go. More often than not, you can go to bed with a feeling of accomplishment.

Sometimes in life, things can get hard and you might not get to where you need to be by the end of the day or you might feel a little mentally constipated and just can’t churn out the best ideas.

It is perfectly human to feel like this and everybody feels burned out from time to time.

But successful writers and successful people know better than to simply stop working. They continue working even when they know it isn’t their best work.

Work is still work.

Ernest Hemingway, author of the beloved classic The Old Man and the Sea, admits that “I write one page of mastery to ninety-one pages of sh*t.” 

Although sometimes it may feel like you aren’t getting anywhere with your work, it is always best to put yourself out there. Jodi Picoult, an American writer known for her novels about family, relationships, love, and more, once said “You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.”

Although you may not feel like it sometimes, you should always carry on with your work. You should always continue working towards your dreams. By learning from the best you can improve yourself greatly.

Who knows, maybe one day your first name is enough for people to know who you are.