Top 10 Reasons you should STOP writing:
I’ve compiled a list of 10 reasons why many writers should stop writing.
(9) – If you haven’t gone to school to obtain a degree in creative writing or english, you can kiss your chances of success goodbye. (8) – Writing takes way too much time and effort, and will leave you feeling empty inside. (7) – When you finish a novel, or kill off important characters you’ve created, it’s the equivalent of an emotional loss if someone you loved actually died. Save yourself the grieving. (6) – Writing may lead to suicide. Remember Sylvia Plath or Virginia Woolf? These are two literary figures who had a lot of success, but couldn’t handle the rigours of their craft. (5) – Writing causes stress. Stress is a very big factor in shorting your life expectancy, and may lead to coronary heart disease, or cancer. (4) – Writing is expensive. Many beginning writers spend thousands of dollars, often going into large amounts of debt when self-publishing or marketing themselves to the public. (3) – You run the tremendous risk of spending a mountain of time and money, only to have your novel or screenplay be a complete flop. (2) – Even the most successful writers receive hundreds of rejection letters before getting published. (1) – Most writers spend their whole lives and never amount to anything. Their friends and family may never understand why you pursue something you’ll never be successful at. You may find out later in life, that you actually have no talent, and you’ve wasted years away when you could have been doing something else productive. Maybe you should quit while you’re ahead, before you waste your life? |
Now that you’ve read this list, do you still want to write?
You do?
EXCELLENT!
You’ve past the test! Real writers wouldn’t pay attention to negative things like this. You cannot be afraid of rejection. You cannot be afraid of failure. Writers write, because they have to. If you wake up every day and you think about your craft, you’re a writer. If you only write once a week, you’re a writer. You cannot be afraid of writing 100 terrible pages before getting 1 really good page.
Take a moment today to reflect on all the GOOD things you have going on in your life. Measure your success by setting personal goals for yourself. Don’t compare yourself to other writers, who have achieved many best sellers or optioned screenplays.
I leave you now with some quotes that help inspire me when I’m feeling blue about my craft. These quotes are a reminder that anything is possible.
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“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.” - Albert Einstein “I would like to be remembered as someone who did the best she could with the talent she had.” – JK Rowling. “Serious writers write, inspired or not. Over time they discover that routine is a better friend to them than inspiration.” - Ralph Keyes “The biggest thing separating people from their artistic ambitions is not a lack of talent. It’s the lack of a deadline.” – Chris Baty “It’s not the college degree that makes a writer. The great thing is to have a story to tell.” - Polly Adler “Find a good story and don’t be surprised if it takes you five years to get it off the ground.” –Brad Anderson “God doesn’t require us to succeed; he only requires that you try.” - Mother Teresa “Talent in cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” - Stephen King |
For all these quotes and MORE, please visit the INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES page at the top of this blog!
~ HAPPY WRITING
The Moral of the Story
Recently, I got into a fairly substantial argument with a friend of mine about writing a story with an important life lesson in the end. He believed that it wasn’t necessary at all, and that writers are stupid for “preaching to their audiences with their biased point of view.” Although I can understand his viewpoint, some of the best stories are told when the writer is presenting a moral lesson to be learned.
It is my belief as writers, we are obligated to give our audiences something to think about.
Effective stories are ones that give the audience feeling. We all can relate to Alan Parrish in the 1995 film Jumanji.
This is a morality tale about facing your biggest fears in life. A true coming of age story, Alan must learn what it takes to be a man, and stand up for what is right. Despite how it fills him with fear, he knows he has to face this challenge head on. Who can’t relate to that?
This entire movie is one driven by characters who are afraid to face their greatest fears. There is a lesson to be learned in that, we must do what is asked of us. It may cost us our lives. It may mean finishing a task we never accomplished. Whatever the case may be, we as writers can educate the audience on how to be better people.
There are reasons why parables like The Boy Who Cried Wolf stick around in everyone’s minds. We strive to be better than characters we see. Reading books, seeing plays, or watching movies is therapeutic. We are reminded of our follies, and are given the remedies we seek.
We shouldn’t be afraid to give our audiences advice on how to live. Take another film and musical classic, The Sound of Music. Fräulein Maria is set out to do a task she doesn’t feel is right for her. After watching over the Von Trapp family, she falls in love with Captain Von Trapp. This fills her with fear, and she runs away, back to the abbey.
This film classic burns itself into the hearts of everyone, and has withstood the test of time through it’s important moral lesson. We must have confidence. When we are frightened, we need to think of brown paper packages tied up with strings. Above all, we must “climb every mountain. Ford every stream. Follow every rainbow, ’till we find our dream.”
Self help books are best sellers, for people long for direction. My friend may think that writing morality tales isn’t necessary, and maybe so. I however, believe it’s an integral, almost primal force in our culture. Fairy tales have withstood the test of time, as they are deep rooted in important life lessons. Despite your beliefs, the parables in the bible reflect important moral lessons we all must strive for. Jesus told these stories to people who flocked to him in the thousands, just to hear a tale of morality.
A moral lesson can be the focal point that ties your entire story together. It helps eliminate everything that isn’t necessary. If your scene, character, or plot point doesn’t do anything to string together your premise, then eliminate it from your story.
All in all, give people a reason to pick up your book. Give your audiences a reason to see your movie. Writers can help make the world a better place through the art of story. The moral of my story, is that writing for social change has always been a focal point in my life. What’s the moral of your story?
What are you writing for?
Take Two Quotes and Call Me in the Morning
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I’ve added a new “quotes” page at the top of the blog. I’ll be updating it every so often. You can also access it under the “quote of the month” on the right side bar. All writer’s need a little help sometimes. Here are some quotes that I’ve collected over the years. Whenever I read them, I affirm my identity. I rekindle the fire, and find a way to push forward. I hope these can do the same for you.
“The mightiest works have been accomplished by men who have kept their ability to dream great dreams.” – Walter Bowie “It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.” – J.K. Rowling “Know how you’re going to end your story before you start writing; without a sense of direction, you can get lost in the middle.” Joan Nixon “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.” - Albert Einstein “I would like to be remembered as someone who did the best she could with the talent she had.” – JK Rowling. “Character is fate. We learn about a character from the decisions he makes or fails to make.” - Nicholas Meyer, Screenwriter “Screenwriting books, like screenwriting classes, run the risk of becoming a substitute for writing” – Michael Hauge “It takes courage to be a writer. Courage to face yourself, work through your demons & make your art.” - Terry Rossio “I can’t believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary.” - Lou Holtz “Serious writers write, inspired or not. Over time they discover that routine is a better friend to them than inspiration.” - Ralph Keyes “Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” - Stephen King “The biggest thing separating people from their artistic ambitions is not a lack of talent. It’s the lack of a deadline.” – Chris Baty 
“In order to write about life, first you must live it!” – Ernest Hemingway “It’s not the college degree that makes a writer. The great thing is to have a story to tell.” - Polly Adler “You accomplish victory step by step, not by leaps and bounds.” - Lyn St. James “You have to be brave to take out that white sheet of paper and put on it words that could be evidence of your stupidity.” - Sol Saks “Harry Potter is all about confronting fears… Twilight is how important it is to have a boyfriend. “ – Stephen King “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” - Robert Collier “Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.” – J.K. Rowling “Find a good story and don’t be surprised if it takes you five years to get it off the ground.” –Brad Anderson “You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.” – Theodore Geisel, “DR. SEUSS” “A writer never has a vacation. For a writer, life consists of either writing or thinking about writing.” — Eugène Ionesco “Books aren’t written – they’re rewritten…It is one of the hardest things to accept.” - Michael Crichton 
“God doesn’t require us to succeed; he only requires that you try.” - Mother Teresa “Trouble in writing reflects troubled thinking, usually an incomplete grasp of the facts or their meaning.” – Barbara Tuchman “The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.” - H. Norman Schwarzkopf “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill “Writing and rewriting are a constant search for what it is one is saying.” – John Updike “Tough times never last, but tough people do.” - Dr. Robert Schuller “99% of success in life stems from just showing up.” – Woody Allan “Even without a religious perspective, love and compassion are clearly of fundamental importance to us all.” - Dali Lama “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” - Maya Angelou “Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.” - Vincent Van Gogh “Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.” – William James “You have brains in your head. Your feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.” – Theodore Geisel, “DR. SEUSS” “Never, never, never give up.” – Winston Churchill “Nothing will come of nothing. Dare for mighty things.” – William Shakespeare “So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.” - Theodore Geisel, “DR. SEUSS” “Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.” - Neil Gaiman “If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time or the tools to write.” – Stephen King 
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Dear Writers, when getting feedback: BEWARE!
A lot of real fucking pricks will tell you what THEY think you should be writing, but I’m here to tell you not to listen to them. Only trusted friends or colleagues, and I mean VERY TRUSTED friends should give you feedback when you’ve finished a peice of work. They’ll be the only people who understand what you’re trying to say in your story. HOWEVER … there are those who think they know absolutely everything about writing, without ever having picked up a pen.
How many times have you heard this little gem?
“There’s already way too many movies about dolphins like yours. I think you should write about zombies instead!”
I don’t WANT to write about zombies! I want to write about freaking DOLPHINS you idiot!
WRITE WHAT YOU LOVE. Don’t let other people tell you what to do with your life. As long as you’re telling a story from your own heart, and you’re being true to yourself, that’s all that matters. In a way, everything has been done. But I don’t like to believe there is no originality left in the world. There’d be no point in writing anything new if that was the case.
I once gave someone a short script I worked on, and instead of getting feedback, I got a lesson on what to do with my life. Know what I have to say to that? EFF YOU!
Speak from your own experiences. If you find that all you can think about is how much you love baige paper – write about baige paper. If you find that all you can think about are magic spells, and humans with special powers – write about that.
Don’t let someone else’s dreams dictate how you should be living your own life. There are friends who just want to take a piece out of you to feel better about themselves.
Don’t let them.
Honest critisism and feedback is hard to come by these days. Very rarely are people honest with how they feel. If you find someone who can honestly tell you what IS working in your script or what ISN’T – you’ve found a treasure.
If you find that arrogant prick who enjoys filling your head with his own ideas, RUN. RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN! These people really suck, and will destroy your confidence. They’re too lazy to amount to anything themselves, and feel by suggesting the things THEY think are awesome, they’ll somehow help you.
On the flipside, beware of those people who think the sun shines out of your ass. They’re probably either sucking up to you, or have such low self-esteem that they are too afraid to be honest with how they feel for fear of rejection.
You want a fine balance. Find someone who knows when you’ve gotten something RIGHT. Seek confidants that AFFIRM your talents and work to lift you up. Seek friends that give you tools to improve your craft. Not to augment your writing, or undermine it. Don’t let people with low self esteem place your work on a pedestal if it’s a peice of crap.
So what’s the bottom line?
People who are honest with themeselves, will be honest with your craft.
Don’t be a Cynical Writer – Have a VISION
Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed a growing hostility towards creative people that have a vision. This vision can be one to “better” a work environment. It can be a story that you know will change the world. You can have a vision of a wonderful apartment of your own, or a grand vacation to remember.
But what happens to those of us that share our visions with others? “Yeah right, what – do you think you’re gunna be the next Steve Jobs?” -My question is: why not?
I don’t understand why there is a negative stigma against people who want to go great things? Are these people jealous? Are they so steeped in their own cynical worldview that they cannot see their own potential dangling right in front of their noses?
The same goes for writers.
I have spoken with many writers over the past month or so, and whenever I give a positive suggestion as to how they can change their work habits, I’m always met with “That’s unrealistic” or “That’s not possible” … Guess what kids – you have to make it possible. You have all the tools you need to change your lives.
I know it’s not easy. I’ve been sucked into this mindset quite a few times. Some people do their best to undermine your best of moods. They suck you dry of whatever vision you may have. “I want to write a story about hero that can change the world” … “pfffft! That’s already been done dude!” – but you can’t take people like that seriously. You know why? Because they have no creativity. They have no VISION.
Having a vision is a fantastic way to change the world around you. Don’t be one of those writers that can’t see past their own cynicism. You need to trust in your vision, and see to it that you do your best to chase your dream. Don’t say “I don’t have the time” … don’t say “I can’t do this, or that”.
Find the time.
Make the time.
Make your vision a reality.
I leave you now, with one of the greatest visionaries there is: Willy Wonka Roald Dahl. If this song doesn’t leave you scratching your heads and questioning why you aren’t doing more to make your vision become a reality, then I don’t know what will.
Willy Wonka – Pure Imagination
Are you a Honeybee Writer or a Mosquito Writer?
Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed that there are two types of writers. Honeybee Writers, and Mosquito Writers.
Honeybee writers, go from resource to resource looking for the ingredients to help them pollinate their craft. They work so that the other bees in the colony can respect them for a job well done. They labour to preserve and protect the life-force of the colony. They are hard workers that do their best to spread their craft around. The end result is one of beautiful growing stories, and that sweet delicious honey we know as success.
Mosquito writers however, go from person to person, sucking the blood out of them. (so to speak.) They drain the best out of people, and leave an annoying itch that just doesn’t seem to go away. Some Mosquito writers can achieve their short term goals, leaving enough bites that a person will reach down and itch. However, at the end of the day, nobody wants a Mosquito writer around, because they just suck.
To all Honeybee Writers out there. Don’t fret! If a Mosquito Writer comes up to suck your blood, just remember that you’ve got a stinger. No one is going to get YOUR honey.
To all Mosquito Writers. You may get their bloody fix in the short term, but you will never make delicious honey.
Don’t cut corners. Don’t be an annoying buzz in a Producer or Publisher’s ear.
Be a diligent, disciplined, hard worker.
In the end, you’ll taste the ‘sweet’ victory of success.
Hey Writers, What’s Stopping You?
I always love this argument, because so many writers I know make excuses as to why they cannot write or have no time to write. The fact of the matter is, very seldom is it impossible to write.
I really love Stephen King’s autobiographical memoir on the craft of writing, appropriately titled On Writing. The last half of the book is written after Mr. King suffered a nearly fatal accident while out for a walk. A man who was drunk hit King with his car, sending King into the ditch in a twisted mess. Even through the excruciating rehab, and long days spent in pain, Stephen King kept on writing. For him, there was nothing else.
George Orwell while in his hospital deathbed, insisted on having his typewriter brought to his room, so that he might type away his dying days.
“I don’t have the time” is a terrible excuse. If you want to take yourself seriously as a writer, you have to know that writers MAKE the time. There will always be laundry, chores, socializing, jobs, and obligatory events you’ll need to attend. Single mothers find the time to write. Why can’t you?
Unfortunately, I know exactly what it feels like ‘having no time’ to write. When I first started writing, I thought it would be a walk in the park. I underestimated the process and took it for granted. I thought writers just hammered out magic, and that was it. I didn’t understand that writing is about re-writing. I didn’t understand that I’d have to fight with friends and relatives for time to write.
The biggest lesson any writer must learn, is that you must set aside time for yourself to write. I don’t have the luxury of being a millionaire with endless time and expenses at my disposal. Writing is not a ‘sometimes’ hobby for me. If you don’t think you can commit to waking up early, going to bed late, setting aside one or two days a week, or making yourself off-limits before 12:00 noon, maybe you need to reconsider what’s actually stopping you.
If you asked famed scientist Stephen Hawking what’s stopping him, victim of the paralyzing disease (ALS), he would laugh at you with his DECtalk speech-synthesizer.
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Happy Writing!~
-DJP
Writer’s Tool #2: The Dice Trick
One of the hardest parts of writing, for me, is finding courage to face the blank page. It stares back at me like the foreboding black monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey. A very simple and easy trick to getting some desperate motivation is the Dice Trick!
You’ll need the following tools:
-A Pair of Dice
Simply roll the dice. Whatever pair of numbers you get, that’s how many pages you’ll have to write today. So you may very well get two sixes, telling you that you have to write 12 pages today! Or, you can get a pair of snake eyes, and you’ll only have to write 2 pages.
The point of this exercise is to simply get you writing. It’s easy, and rather juvenile… but it works for me. Especially because I’m the laziest person on the planet, and I need people to motivate me just to tie my shoes.
For more desperate times … just add more dice.
You can find other tools like this in the Writer’s Toolbox link, at the top of the page.
