How to be a writer
One question I get a lot is how exactly do you write a book. People have trouble wrapping their heads around the idea of creating an entire story from scratch inside your head- drafting a plot, building a world, birthing characters, dialogue, whatever. They ask me how I do it, what’s the formula, how does it work. The funny thing is, there isn’t a formula. Not really. I’m not going to say something arrogant and poetic like ‘it just comes to me!’ because that’s bullshit. I work hard for my ideas. I chase them. I scramble after them. I grab them and dig my nails in. Sometimes they come along willingly. Other times they fight me tooth and nail. More often than not, they fall apart completely before I have a chance to explore them. Creativity is a skill just like any other, and the only way to improve it is to feed it.
No piece of media is spawned from absolutely nothing. Let’s face it, everything has been done before. Most likely a million times. Most likely by incredibly smart people. Skilled people, It can be daunting to think about contributing to a space with so many hard-hitting talents, especially when you feel like your ideas could never match up to theirs. But why wouldn’t they? Some of the most successful properties in the world are born of simple concepts. It’s the execution of those concepts that matter- that’s where the skill comes in. The Lion King is one of Disney’s most successful movies of all time. The concept? Hamlet... but with Lions. Does that not sound insanely stupid? There is no way in hell that should’ve worked as well as it did. And yet, here we are.
I’m not a genius. The best piece of writing advice I can give is not something I came up with on my own, but something that I’ve seen time and time again (spoiler alert: because it works). Don’t be afraid to suck. You’re going to suck. Everyone sucks at one point or another. If your writing is bad, that’s fine. You can edit bad writing. You can learn and grow and improve. You can’t develop an idea if it never sees the light of day. You can’t get better if you don’t try.
Write. Write everything. Write your worst ideas and your best ones. Write badly, have fun doing it, and never stop.
