Béla Fleck is still learning how to play the banjo

Writers are artists. Artists create in various forms: visual, musical, digital, literature, and architecture, to name a few. Some of the best musicians are still crafting their style and learning new techniques. In the bluegrass and jazz world, Béla Fleck is considered to be the most accomplished banjo player in modern music – post-Earl Scruggs. Fleck has experimented with banjo techniques that few have tried and is constantly expanding the boundaries and definitions of banjo-infused music. He would likely tell you that he is still learning, even with all of the awards and recognition for both his solo work and being a member of the genre-meshing Flecktones.

So, what’s the point? Fleck is no different than established writers like Stephen King, John Grisham, Douglas Brinkley, Annie Dillard, and Rick Bragg. He is never satisfied with a false sense of arrival, constantly striving to develop his craft and continue learning. Fleck follows the lead of Shirley Rose when she reflects, “Often, one of the first lessons writers learn, one that may be either frustrating or inspiring, is that they will never have learned all that can be known about writing and will never be able to demonstrate all they do know about writing” (59). Like Fleck, dedicated writers exist in a constant developmental state that is never finished.

Sawatch Range, Rocky Mountains, Salida, Colorado

As FYC instructors we should apply this work ethic in the classroom; students operate in a composition cycle of invent – write – edit – revise – repeat. Rose astutely observes, “Writers never cease learning to write, never completely perfect their writing ability, as long as they encounter new or unfamiliar life experiences that require or inspire writing” (61). You could substitute students for “writers” and it would ring equally true. Writing instructors should seek to convince students of this reality – likely they do not begin college having this mindset.

learning from trying, or growing from failure

Writing is similar to many endeavors in life: relationships, career, sports, painting, health, technology. You learn by trying, failing, resetting, trying again, and finally figuring out the best path for success. Students need the opportunity to try, to fail, to partially succeed, to miss the mark. Ultimately students gain knowledge from these challenging experiences (Brooke and Carr 63). Writing rarely works well (for both the writer and reader) on a first attempt. It is a process that, like many creative endeavors, has a beginning and an end.

But Anne Lamott advises us in Bird by Bird that all writing essentially begins with shitty first drafts. One could also argue that all music begins with shitty first cuts, that all drawings begin with shitty first sketches. Taking this struggle to craft art and applying it to composition in the classroom, writing teachers demystify the writing process. The hope is that students can see that the try–fail–try again–edit-revise-succeed cycle is not unique to writing. Perhaps this will embolden them to embrace composition as more than a required core class. They will see it as a learning skill that can be applied during college and after graduation.

Works Cited

Brooke, Collin and Allison Carr. “4.2: Failure Can Be an Important Part of Writing Development.” Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies - Classroom Edition, edited by Linda Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle, Utah State University Press, Boulder, CO, 2016, pp. 62-64.

Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, Anchor Books, 1997.

Rose, Shirley. “4.0: All Writers Have More to Learn.” Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies - Classroom Edition, edited by Linda Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle, Utah State University Press, Boulder, CO, 2016, pp. 59-61.