The virtue of tenacity
October 22nd, 2006 by Bill
One of my favourite words is tenacity. My dictionary defines it this way:
“not readily letting go of, giving up, or separated from an object that one holds, a position, or a principle”
I’m thinking about tenacity now having reread Bree’s post Rules for effective political letter-writing. To her list I would add, “be tenacious.”
Tenacity, in anything, is one of the fundamental elements to success. It’s also the hardest to achieve because there are few things harder than sticking to something until you break through. And, should you break through (in the political letter writing scenario, should you finally get someone’s attention), it’s easy to sigh and sit back feeling you’ve accomplished your goal.
Of course, you haven’t. Getting someone’s attention and getting someone to engage in something are two very different things. Having caught their attention, you still must prompt them to act. Once more, to accomplish this one of the qualities you must bring to the challenge is tenacity.
In the context of this blog, which is the writing context, all forms of writing - political letter writing, novels, screenplays, reports, articles, RFP responses and so on - require tenacity. I’ve met oodles of writers, or “want-to-be” writers who think that having written something, the job is done. It’s not. Not by a long shot.
I think any worthwhile form of writing wants to achieve something beyond simple existence. A novel wants to be read, as does a short story, a poem. A screenplay wants to be shot. A political letter wants to be read and prompt someone to action.
So having written something, you must be tenacious in finding ways to make it achieve your ultimate goal. In many cases, this means rewriting the whole damn thing (such as a novel) because that first draft is just the beginning - there’s a lot more writing and rewriting and editing still to go before it’s ready for someone to look at and begin considering it for publication.
As mentioned above, having written a letter and received a response you have to start writing the next letter and the next until that response is more than just an acknowledgment.
In all things, and especially in writing, tenacity is a key to being successful. And I have to confess that among my numerous weaknesses, this one - a lack of that tenacious spirit - is the dog that bites my ass.
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