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Knights of Ril
Writing Advice:
Writer Burnout Arises from Misapplied Focus
Lately, I’ve had more in-person events, which leads to talking to more people, which always leads to people asking for advice. After going to enough of these, you start to anticipate the questions, because they are often very similar, if not identical. The one question I get most often?
“What’s the best advice you have for as aspiring author?”
The best advice I have for new writers is write, write, write. You see a movie and a line of dialogue has you going down another path, write it down. You hear a song and a lyric strikes you, write it down. The best advice for someone wanting to be a writer is just that: start.
If they’re serious about writing, then they push for more. So I’ll ask questions about what they are doing to try to give them suggestions for their particular situations. My goal is to Socratically help them find their own answers but, as often as not, I end up playing writing doctor diagnosing their writing illness. In doing this, some more serious writers have recently expressed a common frustration: burnout.
To look at this logically, for me, it’s like this:
Writing + Creation = Joy
I don’t know how someone can burnout on joy. When I tell them this, they then reassess, saying that it’s not the actual writing that they are burned out on, but other aspects, which can vary. So I will address two of the things that have been brought up to me recently here: frustrating external outcomes and not writing the story you would want to read.
Frustrating External Outcomes
Yes, the world can be frustrating. You cannot control how people will respond to your story. You will always have times when it falls into the hands of people who are not your audience.
J.R.R. Tolkien said, “Some who have read [my] book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible, and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer.”
You will always have people who are not as smart as you are and just don’t “get it.”
George R.R. Martin said, “A lion doesn’t concern itself with the opinion of sheep.”
You will always have sales results that are not what you expect. The list goes on and on. So how do you combat these frustrations?
Take them out of the equation. Focus on the writing and the joy of creation. As Stephen King put it, “I did it for the pure joy of the thing. And if you can do it for joy, you can do it forever.”
In other words, if you focus on the joy, there is no burnout.
Not Writing the Story You Would Want to Read
Can I use the word “hate”? I just did and I’m going to do it again. I hate it when people start talking about test markets and trends. I worked in marketing for almost thirty-five years. I worked for companies ranging from mom’n pop to Inc. 500 corporations. I helped companies have massive increases in revenue and won awards for my work. I have hired many people to work in my marketing departments. Yet I can’t name a single person I hired who had a marketing degree. Why? Because I took some of those classes when they were required for my bachelors in communication or my masters in professional communication. I always felt like it was a waste of my time and money. Everything that was being taught felt like it was produced by people trying to justify their own job, rather than providing practical, provable assistance. The secret to good marketing is effective communication. That’s it. Not bells and whistles. Bells and whistles are what people wear when they’re trying to justify their own employment prior to the next wave of layoffs.
So why bring all that up? When people start talking about their books and market trends or other books that did well and they want to do something like it, etc., they are not going about it the right way. That is, they are not going about it in a way that will help them avoid burnout and the frustrations addressed previously. Whenever someone starts bringing up these things to me, I tell them, “Write the story that you would want to read.” Sometimes, people ask, “Would that sell?” To which I respond, “Would you buy it?” They always say, “Yes.” Which, again, allows them to Socratically find the truth because, if they would buy it, then of course it would sell. Don’t overthink it.
James Cameron said, “There are many talented people who haven’t fulfilled their dreams because they overthought it, or they were too cautious and were unwilling to make the leap of faith.”
Beyond that, it is always easier to write the story you’re excited about. Passion for the subject keeps it alive and your creative juices flowing. Passion leads to things like loving what you’re doing. If you wake up in the morning thinking about what you’re going to write that day, then you are in love with what you’re doing.
Cameron said, “I love the idea of being in another world, and anything that could transport me to another world is what I became interested in.” (Notice the word “love”?)
Going back to King, he said, “You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair — the sense that you can never completely put on the page what’s in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.”
In other words, come at it with passion.
I’ll close with one more quote from King, “When you find something at which you are talented, you do it (whatever it is) until your fingers bleed or your eyes are ready to fall out of your head. Even when no one is listening (or reading or watching), every outing is a bravura performance, because you as the creator are happy. Perhaps even ecstatic.”
Writing Advice: Writing a Story
Writing Advice: ChoosingYour Narrative: Character-Driven or Plot-Driven
Writing Advice: Stuff People Usually Get Wrong
Writing Advice: Your Story Is Your Starship; Conflict Is Your Fuel
Writing Advice: What is the Best Advice You Could Give an Aspiring Author?
Writing Advice: Irony: It's Not Just Heavy Metal
Writing Advice: The World-Building of Crown Prince
Author Interview: Nicolas Lemieux
Author Interview: Clay Vermulm
Author Interview: Jasveer Singh Dangi
Author Interview: Rune S. Nielsen
