Writing about Writing: The Early Misimpression & The Real Secrets of Writing
Recently I came across a very interesting motivational YouTube video (if you've read my essays, you'll probably surmise that I spend a lot of time there looking for stuff). It's simply titled "How an Artist Turns Pro."
"Storytellers," the creators of the video takes the pains to refute the idea that being creative is merely a matter of inspiration and talent. Instead, they propose the idea that to be a creative means overcoming, through whatever means necessary, the nagging doubts--what's referred to as "Resistance"--that all artists deal with and persisting anyway.
At the video's conclusion, I couldn't help but agree.
Like all creators, writers deal with an enormous about of self-doubt with regard to their work. At the beginning of their careers, in particular, the doubt screams out like a banshee because you never know whether or not you have the grit or talent to be what you want to be, namely because you have nothing materially to show for your efforts. So, the thoughts that you lack the talent, skill, or brilliant ideas and inspiration to make good art plague you.
In an ideal world, talent would be all it would take. We, however, do not live in an ideal world.
The truth is writing, for most writers, and like all art, is work.
At the video's conclusion, I couldn't help but agree.
Like all creators, writers deal with an enormous about of self-doubt with regard to their work. At the beginning of their careers, in particular, the doubt screams out like a banshee because you never know whether or not you have the grit or talent to be what you want to be, namely because you have nothing materially to show for your efforts. So, the thoughts that you lack the talent, skill, or brilliant ideas and inspiration to make good art plague you.
In an ideal world, talent would be all it would take. We, however, do not live in an ideal world.
The truth is writing, for most writers, and like all art, is work.
Anything that any writer in the history of literature that you, dear reader, have had the pleasure (or perhaps the displeasure) of reading is usually the mere final product of an intense amount of time and effort. What you're reading (including this essay), didn't begin life as what you're reading. That's where the work part comes in. Art is rarely like the goddess Athena of great mythology, who sprang fully formed from the forehead of Zeus suddenly after he'd suffered from a prolonged headache. Artists are rarely that lucky.
Don't get me wrong. Sometimes it does. Harlan Ellison, who I wrote an essay on previously, was famous in his lifetime for writing new short stories in bookstore windows, with only the use of a few words or a single sentence provided to him minutes before beginning work on the story as the jumping-off point. In a matter of hours, five or six, he would complete brand new short story that would require little to no revision or even copy correction.
Harlan, however, is the exception that proves the rule. Most writers do not possess his ability to do that. It is, instead, only through a process of writing, rewriting, revision, and editing that a piece of work can come to completion.
Many would-be writers though find that hard to believe. I know this because I suffered this delusion years ago.
I would read works of my heroes--Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, Mary Shelley, Ursula K. Le Guin, JK Rowling (I'm of the Harry Potter generation), and numerous others--and think, "How did that do that? That's incredible. There must be some secret, some magic bullet, to it." And I looked for it. I read their stories, I listened to and watched interviews, I read books about writing (an awful genre that I'm sadly contributing to), I majored in English in college (again, I know, useless. Joke's over), but I couldn't find any such "magic bullet."
Instead, I discovered diversity.
Very seldom when I was going through this period of author worship did I come across two writers talking about their processes for writing and find a one hundred percent complete overlap. There were certain things I found that writers had in common, but they were basic:
Common Writing Advice
1. Write Everyday, or as near as You Can Manage
2. Finish What You Write
3. Let it Rest before Rewriting
4. Rewrite, Rewrite, Rewrite until it's Right
5. Show it to Readers and Revise (based on what you want the story to be)
6. Write Something New
7. Persist in the Face of Doubt and Rejection
Again, I found exceptions. Some writers plot their stories rigorously before they begin (John Irving, Connie Willis, and Brandon Sanderson all advocate this method), while others (like Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, and Anne Rice) being with an inkling of an idea and just let it grow into what it will as they write. Some wrote by hand while others composed directly on the computer (some even still used typewriters).
That's the first real secret of writing: there are no universal rules. Everyone does it differently. Instead, you just have to take other writers methods out for a spin and see what sticks and what does. The apprenticeship of a writer is one of trial and error. Once you discover your method, you simply do what works for you.
The second real secret is that writing, once you know your own method, is to, in the words of Neil Gaiman, "put one word after the other," until you complete your work-in-progress. The only way to do that, of course, is to overcome the resistance you feel about your project, sitting down, and doing it.
Of course, if you still don't believe me, I advise you to read Neil Gaiman's thoughts on the subject.
*No copyright infringement intended. All images are the property of their creators and owners.*
I would read works of my heroes--Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, Mary Shelley, Ursula K. Le Guin, JK Rowling (I'm of the Harry Potter generation), and numerous others--and think, "How did that do that? That's incredible. There must be some secret, some magic bullet, to it." And I looked for it. I read their stories, I listened to and watched interviews, I read books about writing (an awful genre that I'm sadly contributing to), I majored in English in college (again, I know, useless. Joke's over), but I couldn't find any such "magic bullet."
Instead, I discovered diversity.
Very seldom when I was going through this period of author worship did I come across two writers talking about their processes for writing and find a one hundred percent complete overlap. There were certain things I found that writers had in common, but they were basic:
Common Writing Advice
1. Write Everyday, or as near as You Can Manage
2. Finish What You Write
3. Let it Rest before Rewriting
4. Rewrite, Rewrite, Rewrite until it's Right
5. Show it to Readers and Revise (based on what you want the story to be)
6. Write Something New
7. Persist in the Face of Doubt and Rejection
Again, I found exceptions. Some writers plot their stories rigorously before they begin (John Irving, Connie Willis, and Brandon Sanderson all advocate this method), while others (like Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, and Anne Rice) being with an inkling of an idea and just let it grow into what it will as they write. Some wrote by hand while others composed directly on the computer (some even still used typewriters).
That's the first real secret of writing: there are no universal rules. Everyone does it differently. Instead, you just have to take other writers methods out for a spin and see what sticks and what does. The apprenticeship of a writer is one of trial and error. Once you discover your method, you simply do what works for you.
The second real secret is that writing, once you know your own method, is to, in the words of Neil Gaiman, "put one word after the other," until you complete your work-in-progress. The only way to do that, of course, is to overcome the resistance you feel about your project, sitting down, and doing it.
Of course, if you still don't believe me, I advise you to read Neil Gaiman's thoughts on the subject.
*No copyright infringement intended. All images are the property of their creators and owners.*
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