i want to maintain inexperience. giving my next dance a new set of specs is one sure way to do that. moving from modern dance to ballet is another. switching gears from concert halls to broadway is yet another. norman mailer calls this “rotating your crops.” each new challenge is a way to protect your inexperience, make you remember something you never had a chance to forget. when it’s all done. you bring it back to your craft, stronger and wiser.

analyze your own skill set. see where you’re strong and where you need dramatic improvement, and tackle those lagging skills first. it’s harder than it sounds (most useful habits are), but it’s the only way to improve. in a book of five rings, the sixteenth-century japanese swordfighter miyamoto musashi counseled, ” never have a favorite weapon.” warriors know they need to enlarge their arsenal of skills in order to avoid becoming predictable to their adversaries. it’s no different when the craft is a creative one, and the stakes are somewhat less than life and death. a photographer who can work with both small- and large-format cameras, in a controlled studio and outside in the real world, has exponentially enlarged his potential for developing his career. likewise, a fiction writer who has mastered the short story and the novel form has more options available in telling a story than a short-story writer who has never flexed his muscles in a novel’s long form.

- twyla tharp, the creative habit