Letters to the Editor
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Remember Shakespeare?
I wish it had been Shakespeare who had said, "I have been cohabiting with the Muse, and we have had couplets", so that I might quote him here.
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I don't think it matters whether or not you're any good
If you have to write, work with what you've got. Don't let someone else tell you that you do or do not meet some arbitrary "talent" cutoff. You're born with a certain amount of natural ability, and it differs from others' level of ability, but that's something you can't change. What you can change, however, is the amount of work you put into your writing and into improving your writing. If you work hard at it, you will improve. If you don't work hard at it, you never will. In the end, what matters is your own opinion of your writing - do *you* think you're any good? Is what you write something that you like to read? Are you improving? Is there something else you can do to improve? Are there teachers or instruction books you could seek out? Friendly readers who will give you honest feedback? Do you take that feedback seriously and use it to improve?
If you keep working at your writing, you will get good. If you don't work at it, you won't be - talent or no talent.
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If you keep working at your writing, you will get good.
Somebody told me that when I was young and it gave me false hope. I ended up wasting my whole life trying to be a writer.
It sounds glamourous, but it's not. It's hard work. It's lonely work. People look at you funny. Your dog doesn't know you. Critics shit on you. Look at Stephen King. The artsy types shit on him, didn't they? I've done some of it myself.
I wanted to do real art but the best I could get was these lousy screenplays. You have no idea how agonizing it can be to write for Adam Sandler. Well, maybe you do. I learned one thing from it, though. God hates me. He practically said so.
Hey, I'll drink with ya, if you're buying. Hey, thanks.
One job I got was writing the screenplay for The Godfather, but I ended up getting only five words in the final script: 'of', 'the', two 'ands', and 'dog'. And all of those are in dispute. I didn't fight it. They patted me on the head and gave me $200,000 to shut up about it. But at least I know I almost made it to the big time. At least I got that.
That's all it was, year after year. Bought myself a house on the beach like everybody else. Drank too much, did starlets three times a week. It was horrible. Empty. You had to be there to know.
Should've drowned myself in the Mersey when I was in the mood. With my luck, they would've fished me out.
All this time, the years drifting away, I could have been happy at my true calling, hanging drywall. I still dream about it sometimes. The dust, the paste, the tape - who could forget it? But the damage is done. Now I'm old, now I'm cynical, way too late for apologies now. It's okay. I don't blame anybody.
Tell the kid to go ahead and write for me, wouldja? Just do that for me. If the kid makes it, that'll make me happy. You write, you're a writer. That's all it takes. I know about these things.
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If you love doing it, or can't live without doing it, that settles the issue...
Don't write because you want fame. Don't write because you want money. Write because you love to do it, and because you know your life would be a much poorer, unhappy, frustrating thing if you _don't_ write. The well-hidden secret about writing and success is this--writing is its own reward if you love it. If you enjoy doing it even when it's not going well and you're not sure if its any good, that's a consistent day-to-day, year-to-year reward right there, even if you never earn a dime. There are so many people who never find out what they are good at or what they love to do. To discover one's creative dream--and have the luxury of spending time doing it--is one of life's great treasures.
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And for the love of God, don't hamstring yourself by setting out to make every piece a work of genius...
...for that is the surest way to writer's block and ongoing misery out there. There's no way you can enjoy writing--or feel free enough to really be creative--if you are constantly hearing that little voice in the back of your head tell you you'll never be as good as Fitzgerald or Morrison or King. You are only going to be as good as you are, and the only way to do that is to write. And the only way to do that is to...write. :) Btw, one of the best writing books about the importance of finding your voice and realizing what writing is and isn't is BECOMING A WRITER, by Dorothea Brande.
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Great inspirations, great expectations...
Thank you Cary, for all you put into your piece. I loved it - Much Love to You!
Your writing is a fruit of your life, and one could argue that it is even more delicious to eat such fruit, than to get paid for growing and harvesting it for others. However, one might also argue that fruit and payment for such are each delicious in their own way... Still ultimately, the fruit is more delicious in itself.
And all the different kinds of experiences and work you do in you life, just give you more fruit to bear...
Go with your passions, but have practical fortifications and back up plans!
Most of all love life, for it is a mysterious, precious gift of much more value than most people truly realize...
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@Silenced
It's not a matter of sitting in judgement--I would never want to do that to somebody. However, happy-clappy writer's groups are not good for newbie writers--or anybody else, for that matter. There are different peer review formats that work (and the group should be using one of them), all involve positive feedback, and of course the group should not want to be threatening. But they should strive to be honest.
When somebody shows up to the group with fifty pages of longhand scrawled on notebook paper and literally expects to just be pointed to a big publisher--you have to find a diplomatic way to be honest. Sometimes you have someone show up who needs money, badly, and has decided to starve until they can land a major six-figure deal for a book they haven't finished, that's full of holes and errors they can't be bothered to fix because "that's for the editors". At some point, they are no longer being served by the "that's not working for me" non-answer. And then, of course, there are various borderline types that writer's groups seem to attract, who aren't there for feedback but to just hold forth for as long as they are allowed.
It's a fine line; I'd rather have a very tough but honest writer's group than one that cheers no matter what you read. A friend of mine described his writing group in England as, "They'd say you were wonderful if you read the list of ingredients on a catsup bottle". NOT helpful.
So, while finding a writer's group is crucial, the quality of the group does matter--a lot. If they are never critting you, it may not mean you're brilliant; that's all I'm saying. In the end it's like someone else wrote here. You should be your own worst critic and toughest judge, but not so hard on yourself that you never put your writing out there.