February 4, 2024 • 23 mins
Forget about setting daily word count goals; instead, let's talk about the liberating power of simply showing up to write. Every writer's journey is unique, and this episode is dedicated to those who find strength in the quiet consistency of the craft. I peel back the layers of writing habits that foster true productivity and dismantle the misconceptions that can hinder creativity. Amid the conversation, I celebrate the immense benefits of immersing oneself in a writing community, where the exchange of support and constructive feedback can be transformative. Plus, I’ll share a nod to the '20 mile march' principle, revealing how steady progress can outpace bursts of brilliance in achieving our most ambitious goals.
Navigating the writer's life requires a sturdy helm, and this episode steers through the intricacies of balancing discipline with inspiration, drawing on insights from leadership speaker Jocko Willink. I also dive into the drafting techniques that can help shape a raw narrative into a polished gem, inspired by science fiction maestro Pierce Brown's writing process. The art of writing freely and with passion takes center stage, as I encourage fellow scribes to trust their instincts and make their mark without yielding to external pressures. Your unique voice has a place in this world, and this episode is a testament to that truth. Join me for a heartfelt homage to the resilience that fuels the writer's soul and the passion that ignites the pen.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
So as a writer, you quite often come across some
really fantastic writing adviceand some not so stellar writing
advice, but it's not onlycontained to writing.
For every career, hobby,activity or interest you might
have, you've probably cameacross some really good words of
wisdom and some really bad onestoo.
(00:22):
Maybe you were having a fewdays of disparity and you needed
a motivation boost and it justeither worked out or didn't.
But for writing, this isinteresting.
What I've noticed personallythat when I was going through my
education to get my degree, alot of the bad writing advice
that I encountered actually camefrom college.
(00:43):
In those classes that I had totake to become a creative writer
and get my degree, a lot of thebooks we read were just
outdated and didn't reallyaccount for modern times and
genre fiction nowadays and justpretty much any other genre out
there.
It was rough and I've seen alot of people taking to it like
moths through a flame and itjust wasn't good stuff to be
(01:06):
iterating on.
So in this episode of Ink andBites, we're going to go through
some of the best writing advicethat I personally bumped into
and subscribe to and think it'spretty good.
We're also going to go throughsome of the bad advice that you
should avoid.
So welcome back.
I'm glad to have you here.
Let's get into it.
(01:46):
First and foremost, one piece ofwriting advice that I think is
paramount and I always tellpeople that ask me and I'll
always bring it up inconversation, if I just overhear
it is keep showing up.
What that means is simply justshow up every day to your
writing, no matter what happens,make time in the day for your
writing, and what that does isit builds up this fancy
(02:08):
neuroscience word calledneuroplasticity, which just
means habit building in a sense.
So if you show up every day andwrite 300 words, it might feel
like it's hard to do for thefirst week or two, but by a
month 300 words is no problemand you're able to get it done
quicker than you ever had beforeand maybe you can bump it up
(02:29):
and do more in that sense or inthat day, and then you just keep
going and it keeps building up.
And this kind of subscribes tothis idea that I always hear
people say and it doesn't likeaggravate me in a normal sense,
but I disagree with it so soheavily is people always say
that you need to set a minimumand maximum word count for your
(02:52):
writing session.
You need to have a goal forevery writing session and it's
just honestly hot.
Take here completely incorrect.
Because if you set a minute ormaximum, two things will happen.
We either don't hit yourminimum, so you're distraught
and you take a few days off, oryou hit your maximum and you
feel fantastic, so you rewardyourself with a few days off.
And both of these situationsyou lose because you're taking a
(03:15):
few days off.
I've experienced this personally, so I'm speaking from firsthand
experience.
I've used to set a thousandword minimum and maximum to
every hour that I wanted to sitdown and write.
You know how many times I hitit Exactly one time.
But after I did some respectivethinking and inward thinking, I
(03:38):
just got rid of the minimumentirely and I shit you not.
Usually, every time I sit downand write, I will most likely
hit a thousand words, if not athousand eight hundred.
Before, when I had that maximum, I literally wouldn't hit five
hundred and it would fuckingsuck part of my language.
I just get so into this and Ijust hate when writers set a
(04:01):
minimum and maximum and whenthey struggle to hit it.
Never do it.
It is not worth it.
But this all circles back to thepoint of keep showing up.
Now that I'm off that littlerant soapbox.
If you allow yourself to keepshowing up every day to your
writing with absolutely nominimum maximum set, you have no
time restraint.
(04:22):
You just have a time thatyou're going to sit down and
start writing and then you'llstop when you feel like you want
to stop.
It gives you the freedom andthe space in your brain to think
instead of worrying about yourtime and instead of worrying
about your word count.
Now my good friend, danHendrickson, shout out to him
doing some amazing stuff in theWeb 3 space.
When he's working on his designor other creative projects.
(04:46):
He'll work on them until hefeels the disconnect or until he
feels like he doesn't want todo it anymore, and he'll stop
right there in that moment.
When he told me about that, Ireally resonated with it and
I've been thinking about it overthe few days and it's just a
really powerful thing if you canget yourself to do that.
When you're writing and youdon't want to write anymore,
just stop, just stop.
(05:08):
Pat yourself on the back.
If you got 30 words down, 100,you got there and you wrote.
That's what matters, and thishints at the idea of this
concept that's called the 20mile march, which we're
definitely going to be talkingabout in the future.
I just need to remind myself oncertain elements of it before I
talk about it.
As a matter of fact, I wantedto do that today in replacement
(05:31):
for this episode, but I haven'tgot, like I said, a chance to
research it as fully as I wantto.
But we're definitely going tobe talking about it and it is a
fantastic structured principleto follow if you have really big
goals and you want to make itto, so just keep showing up and
allow yourself that space towrite.
Next up at number two and thisis definitely something that I
(05:51):
should have done a long time agois engage with the writing
community and, believe it or not, there is a whole community out
there in the world and internetthat really want to help you on
your quest and they want tohelp you succeed and they want
to talk about your work.
They probably even want toprovide feedback if you're open
to it, and being a writer canfeel like a really lonely thing
(06:16):
at times because you're kind ofin your own thoughts and you
have all of these stories inyour head that you want to tell
and it can just feel isolatingat times and there's a reason
why there's stories of so manyclassic writers going crazy or
just having attachments issuesbecause it can be kind of lonely
.
So realizing that there's acommunity out there of people
(06:38):
that you can tap into to helpyou and to learn from is a
really, really big thing toconsider.
And if you're into genrefiction in particular, you
probably know and I'm going tobutcher the name, so just bear
with me you probably know ofthis resource called NaNoRyMo,
something like that.
(06:59):
They are a really good platformof creative writers who engage
in forums and groups anddiscussions and just help each
other out, and they have thismonthly challenge, or not
monthly, they have thischallenge that happens, I
believe it's once a year, andthis kind of contradicts my
(07:19):
original point of don't have aminimum or maximum, but they do
a challenge where you have towrite an entire novel in a month
.
I don't advise doing thatpersonally, but what it does,
what that challenge does do, itopens up doors for communication
and opens up new possibilitiesfor making friends that are
(07:40):
writers and you can kind ofbounce off each other.
It's just important to knowthat you're not alone and that
there is a community of valuablepeople to talk to.
I was lucky that I bumped intoa few fantastic classmates
during my time in college when Iwas learning creative writing,
that I still talk to to this dayand still exchange feedback
(08:04):
back and forth.
So if you can find a group ofpeople, it will feel a little
bit less lonely at times.
So next up at number three,this one is a little subjective,
but writing is work and itshouldn't really be downplayed.
And we as writers like todownplay ourselves a lot by
(08:27):
saying what we're doing is notreally work or it's not really
beneficial, so on and so forth.
A lot of people that look infrom the outside, especially
people on the older side ofthings, can easily criticize
writers to say that they're lazy.
Nobody said don't have anytalent, because they don't
actually know what they're doing.
And these people don'tunderstand how hard it is to be
(08:47):
a writer.
It's not easy For one.
You really don't make that muchmoney unless you hit it big
with your first book.
Like Hunger Games, tolkien, youreally don't make that much
money until you hit it big andit requires a lot of intellect
and skill in order to be awriter.
So you shouldn't allow yourselfor other people who aren't
(09:13):
writers tell you that whatyou're doing is pointless or
lazy, because it is far from it.
Writing is a vocation.
It should be treated like thatand you should be proud every
time you pick up the pen.
And when I say you, I say we asa collective group of writers
out there who are in this era ofcreativity and drama and all of
(09:37):
this stuff.
Don't downplay your work,because what you're doing is
important, no matter what you'rewriting, even if you're writing
a small article in a magazine,what you're doing is important
and, like I said, writing is anoble endeavor.
It will make and at the end itwill make the feeling when
you're actually holding yourwork physically in your hands
(09:59):
all that more sweeter when youlook back at the people that
doubted you and wanted todownplay your skills and your
decision to become a writer Atnumber four and I'm kind of a
fan of this one too and I reallyresonated with it personally is
right when you're inspired, butdon't wait for it.
Now.
We give some contextualizedinformation for this.
(10:21):
So when I watch a movie, that'sa really good movie that brings
me to tears, or is just abadass film.
Or when I finish a really goodsingle player story driven game
like the Last of Us, and try tothink another one like Dying
Light One and Two Uncharted is abetter example for me.
(10:42):
When I finish playing thosegames or if I go through a
really awesome moment, I'm justabsolutely struck by this, want
to write because the ideas arecoming smoother and it's like
the muses are guiding my pen inthat sort of way at those times,
because there's just somethingin the film and in the game that
spoke to me.
(11:03):
I just it unlocks a creativitydoor in my brain.
But to the tail end of thetitle.
But you don't want to wait forit.
So if I followed the scheduleof only writing when you feel,
only writing when I feelinspired, I would have weeks and
months of downtime in betweenthe brief hours that I am really
(11:23):
inspired by what I justexperienced.
So, as the popular leadershipspeaker and teacher, jocko
Willink, says, it is importantto find the dichotomy between
writing when you're inspired butnot waiting for it, because
inspiration might not come.
It's yet to kind of find thebalance between both of those.
When you get inspired, you'refantastic.
(11:45):
Use that as a jumping point andas a spark to get the flames
going.
But when you're not motivated,or I should say when you're not
inspired, don't just not write.
Remember what we talked about,for the first one is keep
showing up every day.
You see how it all goes back tothat.
(12:06):
It's a circle.
You always have to make sureyou keep showing up.
All of these tips kind of usethat as their foundation.
So again, maybe oh, this isinteresting too, because I used
to try and spark inspiration.
Like, if I wanted to have awriting day, I would try to
watch a movie that I really likeor I would try to play a game
that I really like.
That used to Spark theinspiration in me, passively,
(12:29):
when I wasn't thinking about it,but when I was doing it on
purpose, it wasn't happening.
So it's kind of hard right.
So when you feel inspired,right, but don't wait for it and
don't try to make it artificial, and it all goes back to keep
showing up.
And and finally, the last bit ofadvice that I had in mind for
literally all of 2023, but Iwasn't really able to put it
(12:53):
into words, either vocally orwritten.
Is this right here.
First, make it exist.
Second, make it make sense.
Third, make it good.
And what that basicallytranslates to in art, in writer
speak, is your first draft isnot going to be good, and you
(13:15):
shouldn't convince yourself thatit is, unless you're Jimmy
Neutron and a genius, and it'sokay if it's not good.
Your second draft is where youmake it make sense, and your
third draft is where you make itgood, and maybe even your third
, fourth or fifth draft if youneed it.
Again, the first draft isliterally there for you to get
what's in your brain out onpaper, and this is a concept
(13:37):
that I had in mind pretty muchall year, but again, I couldn't
really articulate it until Iseen this comment, which is
where this title came from onreddit, as I was writing a blog
today, and Originally, where theseed came from Was from the
author who really motivates meand is my north star, pierce
(13:59):
Brown, who is the author of theRed Rising series, and he's
currently blowing up in thescience fiction space because of
these books.
He even has his own.
He even has his own convention.
Sorry, howler con.
Highly recommend it.
Check it out if you'reinterested.
I don't know if there's onegoing on this year.
But the community around thesebooks are growing really quick
(14:20):
and I'm pretty sure there'sadaptations for Netflix or
something along the line comingsometime in the future.
But long story short, he is areally good author in science
fiction and he had an interviewthat I was watching where he
basically said it I'mparaphrasing because I don't
remember the exact words thefirst draft I sent to my editor
and they thought I was on acrack.
That first draft never saw thelight of day and I was like huh,
(14:43):
that's awesome, because at thetime I was so hard on myself and
I was like everything I'mwriting is garbage, I'm not
gonna make it anywhere.
And just realizing that evenfrom him, this proven,
established writer, that hisfirst draft Were like looked at
like are you crazy?
It made me feel significantlybetter.
So if you find yourself in thesame situation that I did and
(15:07):
still do at times that I'mreally down, just keep in mind
that your first draft isn'tgonna be perfect and even Famous
writers now still have the sameexact struggles that new
writers do.
So it's you know it all good.
Again, this kind of goes back totheir talk with the community.
Engage with other writers.
It really opens up theperspective a little bit and
(15:29):
makes the journey a lot moremanageable, because you know
you're not alone and you knowyour first draft isn't gonna be
perfect.
So just keep that in mind.
As you're, you're going throughyour manuscript.
I mean revision.
Revision exists for a reasonit's a part of the writing
process, because it's useful andbecause that's how stories get
polished.
So that is a very, verypowerful bit of advice that I
(15:56):
hope you find some use in aswell.
So now we're going to end offthis episode by just talking
about some of the comedicallybad writing advice that you
should just stay away from whenyou're starting out, or even
just when you're well-rounded asa writer.
Just avoid these to the ends ofthe earth.
I'm just going to read them andwe'll talk about them, and if
(16:17):
there's any more elaboration, wecan go down that path.
But what I have here this isinteresting.
So write what you know.
Why would you want to do that?
Unless you're writingnonfiction, why would you want
to write what you know about?
That's boring, I mean.
Of course, having experienceadds authenticity, but that can
limit creativity.
So don't feel afraid to explorethings and unfamiliar topics
(16:41):
and just do research.
I mean, I don't know how tofight with a sword.
Do you know how to fight with asword?
Do you know how to diffuse abomb?
Do you know how to lead an army?
Do you know how to fly a plane?
Do you know how to I don't knowshoot some super science
fiction weapon?
Do you know how light?
If you're using a laser gun,would you know how light would
power that weapon?
I mean, these are things thatnot too many people, if anybody,
(17:04):
really knows about.
So don't feel afraid, just dosome basic research.
So if someone tells you youshould write what you know,
don't listen to them.
This one is going to be kind ofa hot take because I've
literally spent semesterslearning how to do this and
reflecting on it.
It's kind of painful.
This idea of show, don't tell,and don't get me wrong, you want
(17:26):
to show when you can and neverrely on telling unless you have
to.
But a lot of the time or Ishould say a good amount of
times, telling is actuallyrequired and showing would make
the writing sound awkward.
It goes both two ways straight.
Sometimes you need to tell andnot show.
Sometimes you have to show, nottell, any any instance that you
(17:48):
can show instead of telling, doit.
But don't allow people to tellyou you are never allowed to
tell, because sometimes it'snecessary for pacing or
conveying informationeffectively, and finding the
right balance is key.
Once again, beating the deadhorse.
Sometimes telling is needed.
This next one is kind of similarto if someone tells you to
(18:11):
write what you know.
If the same person says writefor your audience, just run away
.
I would just disengage from theconversation because trying to
please everyone can dilute yourvoice.
You want to write the storyyou're passionate about, which
is the one job as a writer.
I don't think I mentioned this,but the one job as a writer
(18:32):
that we all share is to writethe story that we would want to
read.
That is our only obligation,and writing for your audience
would go against that onlyobligation.
You want to write what you wantto read.
You don't want to write forcertain people.
Now that changes a little bit.
When you have a successfulseries going on, obviously you
(18:53):
have to finish that series andit's kind of writing for your
audience.
But don't allow your audiencein the back of your mind to
change decisions, like if youwere going to kill a fan
favorite character and it'sreally good for the plot.
Just do it.
Don't allow the backlash youwould get.
Stop you because that's alittle silly.
So don't try to appease themasses because it will never
(19:14):
work.
The next one is follow a strictstructure.
Now again subjective, based onthe person, but structures like
the three act model are useful.
But rigid adherence again kindof like writing what you know
will stifle your creativity.
You kind of want to experimentwith different structures to
(19:35):
find what works for your story.
You don't want to just want tofollow them religiously.
For example, as I writeEarthborne, which is my science
fiction novel, which is a laborof pain and love, I use the
hero's journey literarystructure, but I don't follow it
strictly.
I actually took it and mademodifications to it that help me
(19:58):
use it for my story in a betterway than just the normal hero's
journey.
So basically, I'll let open upthe hood so we can take a peek
inside.
What I did, very, very simple,is every time you're going to
transition to the next phase ofthe hero's journey, so like call
to adventure, so on and soforth when you're going to the
(20:19):
next stage, instead of justjumping right into it, I added
inflection points, which arethose moments that go into the
next step in that literarystructure.
So example call to adventureInflection point, and then the
next stage inflection point.
Next stage, inflection point.
Maybe meeting the here mentorinflection point.
Entering the other worldinflection point.
(20:40):
So on and so forth, and I foundthat to be really helpful.
So, while the structures arebeneficial and you should use
them, you don't want to followthem religiously because that
might actually make it harderfor you to fit your story into
that mold.
And finally, one other piece ofbad advice they never want to
hear, never want to follow, isright what's popular.
(21:01):
That goes against the entireobligation of writing the story
that you want to read.
Don't just write what's trendy.
Don't write a science fictionstory because science fiction is
trendy at the moment.
Don't write fantasy becauseit's trendy right now.
Don't write fiction, justnormal fiction.
If it's trendy, just write whatyou want to write.
(21:22):
If anyone is trying to tell youto write a specific thing, then
don't listen to them.
That gets a little bit harderif you're working with a
publisher, because publishersare.
They have a lot of weight,unless you want to self publish,
which is completely possible.
It's a little bit money whenyou're dealing with them, but if
just in general, where you can,don't allow people to shape
(21:43):
your creative writing and yourwriting career, right what you
want to write and just black outall the other noise and bring
your creativity to bear into theworld, because we desperately
need more of it nowadays.
And with that said and done, Ithink it's about time we close
out this episode of In Goodbyte.
So thank you so much forjoining me again.
(22:05):
I really hope these bits ofwriting advice help you out, no
matter where you are in yourwriting.
And if you really like the showand you like what I'm doing,
feel free to check out mywebsite at the dash world dash
builder dot com.
I have blogs that go out everyfew weeks.
And if you really really likewhat I'm doing and you want to
(22:25):
support me, feel free to checkout my co fi at co fi dot com
slash world builder.
Any support I greatlyappreciate.
It allows me to keep doing thisbecause I love doing it, allows
me to expand it and see whathappens.
So again, thank you so much forjoining me and I'll catch you
in the next one.
So as a writer, you quite often come across some
really fantastic writing adviceand some not so stellar writing
advice, but it's not onlycontained to writing.
For every career, hobby,activity or interest you might
have, you've probably cameacross some really good words of
wisdom and some really bad onestoo.
(00:22):
Maybe you were having a fewdays of disparity and you needed
a motivation boost and it justeither worked out or didn't.
But for writing, this isinteresting.
What I've noticed personallythat when I was going through my
education to get my degree, alot of the bad writing advice
that I encountered actually camefrom college.
(00:43):
In those classes that I had totake to become a creative writer
and get my degree, a lot of thebooks we read were just
outdated and didn't reallyaccount for modern times and
genre fiction nowadays and justpretty much any other genre out
there.
It was rough and I've seen alot of people taking to it like
moths through a flame and itjust wasn't good stuff to be
(01:06):
iterating on.
So in this episode of Ink andBites, we're going to go through
some of the best writing advicethat I personally bumped into
and subscribe to and think it'spretty good.
We're also going to go throughsome of the bad advice that you
should avoid.
So welcome back.
I'm glad to have you here.
Let's get into it.
(01:46):
First and foremost, one piece ofwriting advice that I think is
paramount and I always tellpeople that ask me and I'll
always bring it up inconversation, if I just overhear
it is keep showing up.
What that means is simply justshow up every day to your
writing, no matter what happens,make time in the day for your
writing, and what that does isit builds up this fancy
(02:08):
neuroscience word calledneuroplasticity, which just
means habit building in a sense.
So if you show up every day andwrite 300 words, it might feel
like it's hard to do for thefirst week or two, but by a
month 300 words is no problemand you're able to get it done
quicker than you ever had beforeand maybe you can bump it up
(02:29):
and do more in that sense or inthat day, and then you just keep
going and it keeps building up.
And this kind of subscribes tothis idea that I always hear
people say and it doesn't likeaggravate me in a normal sense,
but I disagree with it so soheavily is people always say
that you need to set a minimumand maximum word count for your
(02:52):
writing session.
You need to have a goal forevery writing session and it's
just honestly hot.
Take here completely incorrect.
Because if you set a minute ormaximum, two things will happen.
We either don't hit yourminimum, so you're distraught
and you take a few days off, oryou hit your maximum and you
feel fantastic, so you rewardyourself with a few days off.
And both of these situationsyou lose because you're taking a
(03:15):
few days off.
I've experienced this personally, so I'm speaking from firsthand
experience.
I've used to set a thousandword minimum and maximum to
every hour that I wanted to sitdown and write.
You know how many times I hitit Exactly one time.
But after I did some respectivethinking and inward thinking, I
(03:38):
just got rid of the minimumentirely and I shit you not.
Usually, every time I sit downand write, I will most likely
hit a thousand words, if not athousand eight hundred.
Before, when I had that maximum, I literally wouldn't hit five
hundred and it would fuckingsuck part of my language.
I just get so into this and Ijust hate when writers set a
(04:01):
minimum and maximum and whenthey struggle to hit it.
Never do it.
It is not worth it.
But this all circles back to thepoint of keep showing up.
Now that I'm off that littlerant soapbox.
If you allow yourself to keepshowing up every day to your
writing with absolutely nominimum maximum set, you have no
time restraint.
(04:22):
You just have a time thatyou're going to sit down and
start writing and then you'llstop when you feel like you want
to stop.
It gives you the freedom andthe space in your brain to think
instead of worrying about yourtime and instead of worrying
about your word count.
Now my good friend, danHendrickson, shout out to him
doing some amazing stuff in theWeb 3 space.
When he's working on his designor other creative projects.
(04:46):
He'll work on them until hefeels the disconnect or until he
feels like he doesn't want todo it anymore, and he'll stop
right there in that moment.
When he told me about that, Ireally resonated with it and
I've been thinking about it overthe few days and it's just a
really powerful thing if you canget yourself to do that.
When you're writing and youdon't want to write anymore,
just stop, just stop.
(05:08):
Pat yourself on the back.
If you got 30 words down, 100,you got there and you wrote.
That's what matters, and thishints at the idea of this
concept that's called the 20mile march, which we're
definitely going to be talkingabout in the future.
I just need to remind myself oncertain elements of it before I
talk about it.
As a matter of fact, I wantedto do that today in replacement
(05:31):
for this episode, but I haven'tgot, like I said, a chance to
research it as fully as I wantto.
But we're definitely going tobe talking about it and it is a
fantastic structured principleto follow if you have really big
goals and you want to make itto, so just keep showing up and
allow yourself that space towrite.
Next up at number two and thisis definitely something that I
(05:51):
should have done a long time agois engage with the writing
community and, believe it or not, there is a whole community out
there in the world and internetthat really want to help you on
your quest and they want tohelp you succeed and they want
to talk about your work.
They probably even want toprovide feedback if you're open
to it, and being a writer canfeel like a really lonely thing
(06:16):
at times because you're kind ofin your own thoughts and you
have all of these stories inyour head that you want to tell
and it can just feel isolatingat times and there's a reason
why there's stories of so manyclassic writers going crazy or
just having attachments issuesbecause it can be kind of lonely
.
So realizing that there's acommunity out there of people
(06:38):
that you can tap into to helpyou and to learn from is a
really, really big thing toconsider.
And if you're into genrefiction in particular, you
probably know and I'm going tobutcher the name, so just bear
with me you probably know ofthis resource called NaNoRyMo,
something like that.
(06:59):
They are a really good platformof creative writers who engage
in forums and groups anddiscussions and just help each
other out, and they have thismonthly challenge, or not
monthly, they have thischallenge that happens, I
believe it's once a year, andthis kind of contradicts my
(07:19):
original point of don't have aminimum or maximum, but they do
a challenge where you have towrite an entire novel in a month
.
I don't advise doing thatpersonally, but what it does,
what that challenge does do, itopens up doors for communication
and opens up new possibilitiesfor making friends that are
(07:40):
writers and you can kind ofbounce off each other.
It's just important to knowthat you're not alone and that
there is a community of valuablepeople to talk to.
I was lucky that I bumped intoa few fantastic classmates
during my time in college when Iwas learning creative writing,
that I still talk to to this dayand still exchange feedback
(08:04):
back and forth.
So if you can find a group ofpeople, it will feel a little
bit less lonely at times.
So next up at number three,this one is a little subjective,
but writing is work and itshouldn't really be downplayed.
And we as writers like todownplay ourselves a lot by
(08:27):
saying what we're doing is notreally work or it's not really
beneficial, so on and so forth.
A lot of people that look infrom the outside, especially
people on the older side ofthings, can easily criticize
writers to say that they're lazy.
Nobody said don't have anytalent, because they don't
actually know what they're doing.
And these people don'tunderstand how hard it is to be
(08:47):
a writer.
It's not easy For one.
You really don't make that muchmoney unless you hit it big
with your first book.
Like Hunger Games, tolkien, youreally don't make that much
money until you hit it big andit requires a lot of intellect
and skill in order to be awriter.
So you shouldn't allow yourselfor other people who aren't
(09:13):
writers tell you that whatyou're doing is pointless or
lazy, because it is far from it.
Writing is a vocation.
It should be treated like thatand you should be proud every
time you pick up the pen.
And when I say you, I say we asa collective group of writers
out there who are in this era ofcreativity and drama and all of
(09:37):
this stuff.
Don't downplay your work,because what you're doing is
important, no matter what you'rewriting, even if you're writing
a small article in a magazine,what you're doing is important
and, like I said, writing is anoble endeavor.
It will make and at the end itwill make the feeling when
you're actually holding yourwork physically in your hands
(09:59):
all that more sweeter when youlook back at the people that
doubted you and wanted todownplay your skills and your
decision to become a writer Atnumber four and I'm kind of a
fan of this one too and I reallyresonated with it personally is
right when you're inspired, butdon't wait for it.
Now.
We give some contextualizedinformation for this.
(10:21):
So when I watch a movie, that'sa really good movie that brings
me to tears, or is just abadass film.
Or when I finish a really goodsingle player story driven game
like the Last of Us, and try tothink another one like Dying
Light One and Two Uncharted is abetter example for me.
(10:42):
When I finish playing thosegames or if I go through a
really awesome moment, I'm justabsolutely struck by this, want
to write because the ideas arecoming smoother and it's like
the muses are guiding my pen inthat sort of way at those times,
because there's just somethingin the film and in the game that
spoke to me.
(11:03):
I just it unlocks a creativitydoor in my brain.
But to the tail end of thetitle.
But you don't want to wait forit.
So if I followed the scheduleof only writing when you feel,
only writing when I feelinspired, I would have weeks and
months of downtime in betweenthe brief hours that I am really
(11:23):
inspired by what I justexperienced.
So, as the popular leadershipspeaker and teacher, jocko
Willink, says, it is importantto find the dichotomy between
writing when you're inspired butnot waiting for it, because
inspiration might not come.
It's yet to kind of find thebalance between both of those.
When you get inspired, you'refantastic.
(11:45):
Use that as a jumping point andas a spark to get the flames
going.
But when you're not motivated,or I should say when you're not
inspired, don't just not write.
Remember what we talked about,for the first one is keep
showing up every day.
You see how it all goes back tothat.
(12:06):
It's a circle.
You always have to make sureyou keep showing up.
All of these tips kind of usethat as their foundation.
So again, maybe oh, this isinteresting too, because I used
to try and spark inspiration.
Like, if I wanted to have awriting day, I would try to
watch a movie that I really likeor I would try to play a game
that I really like.
That used to Spark theinspiration in me, passively,
(12:29):
when I wasn't thinking about it,but when I was doing it on
purpose, it wasn't happening.
So it's kind of hard right.
So when you feel inspired,right, but don't wait for it and
don't try to make it artificial, and it all goes back to keep
showing up.
And and finally, the last bit ofadvice that I had in mind for
literally all of 2023, but Iwasn't really able to put it
(12:53):
into words, either vocally orwritten.
Is this right here.
First, make it exist.
Second, make it make sense.
Third, make it good.
And what that basicallytranslates to in art, in writer
speak, is your first draft isnot going to be good, and you
(13:15):
shouldn't convince yourself thatit is, unless you're Jimmy
Neutron and a genius, and it'sokay if it's not good.
Your second draft is where youmake it make sense, and your
third draft is where you make itgood, and maybe even your third
, fourth or fifth draft if youneed it.
Again, the first draft isliterally there for you to get
what's in your brain out onpaper, and this is a concept
(13:37):
that I had in mind pretty muchall year, but again, I couldn't
really articulate it until Iseen this comment, which is
where this title came from onreddit, as I was writing a blog
today, and Originally, where theseed came from Was from the
author who really motivates meand is my north star, pierce
(13:59):
Brown, who is the author of theRed Rising series, and he's
currently blowing up in thescience fiction space because of
these books.
He even has his own.
He even has his own convention.
Sorry, howler con.
Highly recommend it.
Check it out if you'reinterested.
I don't know if there's onegoing on this year.
But the community around thesebooks are growing really quick
(14:20):
and I'm pretty sure there'sadaptations for Netflix or
something along the line comingsometime in the future.
But long story short, he is areally good author in science
fiction and he had an interviewthat I was watching where he
basically said it I'mparaphrasing because I don't
remember the exact words thefirst draft I sent to my editor
and they thought I was on acrack.
That first draft never saw thelight of day and I was like huh,
(14:43):
that's awesome, because at thetime I was so hard on myself and
I was like everything I'mwriting is garbage, I'm not
gonna make it anywhere.
And just realizing that evenfrom him, this proven,
established writer, that hisfirst draft Were like looked at
like are you crazy?
It made me feel significantlybetter.
So if you find yourself in thesame situation that I did and
(15:07):
still do at times that I'mreally down, just keep in mind
that your first draft isn'tgonna be perfect and even Famous
writers now still have the sameexact struggles that new
writers do.
So it's you know it all good.
Again, this kind of goes back totheir talk with the community.
Engage with other writers.
It really opens up theperspective a little bit and
(15:29):
makes the journey a lot moremanageable, because you know
you're not alone and you knowyour first draft isn't gonna be
perfect.
So just keep that in mind.
As you're, you're going throughyour manuscript.
I mean revision.
Revision exists for a reasonit's a part of the writing
process, because it's useful andbecause that's how stories get
polished.
So that is a very, verypowerful bit of advice that I
(15:56):
hope you find some use in aswell.
So now we're going to end offthis episode by just talking
about some of the comedicallybad writing advice that you
should just stay away from whenyou're starting out, or even
just when you're well-rounded asa writer.
Just avoid these to the ends ofthe earth.
I'm just going to read them andwe'll talk about them, and if
(16:17):
there's any more elaboration, wecan go down that path.
But what I have here this isinteresting.
So write what you know.
Why would you want to do that?
Unless you're writingnonfiction, why would you want
to write what you know about?
That's boring, I mean.
Of course, having experienceadds authenticity, but that can
limit creativity.
So don't feel afraid to explorethings and unfamiliar topics
(16:41):
and just do research.
I mean, I don't know how tofight with a sword.
Do you know how to fight with asword?
Do you know how to diffuse abomb?
Do you know how to lead an army?
Do you know how to fly a plane?
Do you know how to I don't knowshoot some super science
fiction weapon?
Do you know how light?
If you're using a laser gun,would you know how light would
power that weapon?
I mean, these are things thatnot too many people, if anybody,
(17:04):
really knows about.
So don't feel afraid, just dosome basic research.
So if someone tells you youshould write what you know,
don't listen to them.
This one is going to be kind ofa hot take because I've
literally spent semesterslearning how to do this and
reflecting on it.
It's kind of painful.
This idea of show, don't tell,and don't get me wrong, you want
(17:26):
to show when you can and neverrely on telling unless you have
to.
But a lot of the time or Ishould say a good amount of
times, telling is actuallyrequired and showing would make
the writing sound awkward.
It goes both two ways straight.
Sometimes you need to tell andnot show.
Sometimes you have to show, nottell, any any instance that you
(17:48):
can show instead of telling, doit.
But don't allow people to tellyou you are never allowed to
tell, because sometimes it'snecessary for pacing or
conveying informationeffectively, and finding the
right balance is key.
Once again, beating the deadhorse.
Sometimes telling is needed.
This next one is kind of similarto if someone tells you to
(18:11):
write what you know.
If the same person says writefor your audience, just run away
.
I would just disengage from theconversation because trying to
please everyone can dilute yourvoice.
You want to write the storyyou're passionate about, which
is the one job as a writer.
I don't think I mentioned this,but the one job as a writer
(18:32):
that we all share is to writethe story that we would want to
read.
That is our only obligation,and writing for your audience
would go against that onlyobligation.
You want to write what you wantto read.
You don't want to write forcertain people.
Now that changes a little bit.
When you have a successfulseries going on, obviously you
(18:53):
have to finish that series andit's kind of writing for your
audience.
But don't allow your audiencein the back of your mind to
change decisions, like if youwere going to kill a fan
favorite character and it'sreally good for the plot.
Just do it.
Don't allow the backlash youwould get.
Stop you because that's alittle silly.
So don't try to appease themasses because it will never
(19:14):
work.
The next one is follow a strictstructure.
Now again subjective, based onthe person, but structures like
the three act model are useful.
But rigid adherence again kindof like writing what you know
will stifle your creativity.
You kind of want to experimentwith different structures to
(19:35):
find what works for your story.
You don't want to just want tofollow them religiously.
For example, as I writeEarthborne, which is my science
fiction novel, which is a laborof pain and love, I use the
hero's journey literarystructure, but I don't follow it
strictly.
I actually took it and mademodifications to it that help me
(19:58):
use it for my story in a betterway than just the normal hero's
journey.
So basically, I'll let open upthe hood so we can take a peek
inside.
What I did, very, very simple,is every time you're going to
transition to the next phase ofthe hero's journey, so like call
to adventure, so on and soforth when you're going to the
(20:19):
next stage, instead of justjumping right into it, I added
inflection points, which arethose moments that go into the
next step in that literarystructure.
So example call to adventureInflection point, and then the
next stage inflection point.
Next stage, inflection point.
Maybe meeting the here mentorinflection point.
Entering the other worldinflection point.
(20:40):
So on and so forth, and I foundthat to be really helpful.
So, while the structures arebeneficial and you should use
them, you don't want to followthem religiously because that
might actually make it harderfor you to fit your story into
that mold.
And finally, one other piece ofbad advice they never want to
hear, never want to follow, isright what's popular.
(21:01):
That goes against the entireobligation of writing the story
that you want to read.
Don't just write what's trendy.
Don't write a science fictionstory because science fiction is
trendy at the moment.
Don't write fantasy becauseit's trendy right now.
Don't write fiction, justnormal fiction.
If it's trendy, just write whatyou want to write.
(21:22):
If anyone is trying to tell youto write a specific thing, then
don't listen to them.
That gets a little bit harderif you're working with a
publisher, because publishersare.
They have a lot of weight,unless you want to self publish,
which is completely possible.
It's a little bit money whenyou're dealing with them, but if
just in general, where you can,don't allow people to shape
(21:43):
your creative writing and yourwriting career, right what you
want to write and just black outall the other noise and bring
your creativity to bear into theworld, because we desperately
need more of it nowadays.
And with that said and done, Ithink it's about time we close
out this episode of In Goodbyte.
So thank you so much forjoining me again.
(22:05):
I really hope these bits ofwriting advice help you out, no
matter where you are in yourwriting.
And if you really like the showand you like what I'm doing,
feel free to check out mywebsite at the dash world dash
builder dot com.
I have blogs that go out everyfew weeks.
And if you really really likewhat I'm doing and you want to
(22:25):
support me, feel free to checkout my co fi at co fi dot com
slash world builder.
Any support I greatlyappreciate.
It allows me to keep doing thisbecause I love doing it, allows
me to expand it and see whathappens.
So again, thank you so much forjoining me and I'll catch you
in the next one.
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