Alright, stop laughing. I know the image of the writer is one of some dude sipping, okay, chugging whiskey in a remote cabin in the Allegheny mountains, but unless you're a trust-fund baby (fuck you, dude) the contemporary writer is a working girl-- and that means tossing the outmoded image of the writer as
artiste out the window. The past couple of years, I've been fortunate to make my living through storytelling, but I'm anxious to take my work to the next level ('marginally above hackjob' doesn't look pretty on an epitaph) and have implemented some strategies into my life I'd like to share. A deep debt goes to LifeClever's
7 Habits of Highly Effective Junior Designers:
- Work quickly, produce a lot
- Attend to details
- Be versatile
- Make an effort to learn
- Anticipate problems
- Set goals
- Display a positive attitude
1. Work quickly, produce a lotThis is what Anne Lamott calls "the ethic of shitty first drafts". Everyone has brilliant ideas, writers remember to put them to paper. Carry a notebook with you everywhere. My version is a stack of 3x5 notecards attached with a binder clip. Producing a lot is my biggest hurdle. I hate hate hate first drafts. The trick is to get them out of your head and onto the page. Somebody said that you have to write down all the stuff, you're going to throw away. It's true. Writer's write.
2. Attend to detailsI'm going to come at this two ways: first, as a writer and then as an editor who works with writers all day:
The writer in me says:There is no job out there that is more self-directed than the writer's. Unless you're doing copy on Madison Avenue, chances are, you can do what you want. This isn't a free pass, though. You have to be your own boss. I use the Getting Things Done system to handle my life, both my day job and my own work. I'll go into it more at some later date (Next Action: @blog write GTD implementation). You need a system for yourself: Spielberg/Vanity Fair/IttyBitty Book Press isn't going to call you up one day and say, "I wanna make you a star!" You're the one making it happen.
The editor in me says:If I have to choose between a ho-hum writer who turns in assignments on time and who follows my instructions or a fantastic writer who is always late and refuses to do what I ask, it's not much of a choice. For some reason a lot of young writers think they know better than their editors. It's maddening to explain the angle, word count and style of an article and discover the writer didn't bother to listen. If someone is paying you to write, listen to what they're asking for and ask questions (editors eat that up!).
3. Be versatileI will write cereal box copy if paid. Since college I've written about a dozen scripts over 200 articles, a bunch of script coverage and two short stories. Every new thing you write makes you a stronger writer. Dilettantes will only write about what interests them, writers realize their job is to discover the interesting in everything.
4.Make an effort to learnStephen King will toss you out if you're not reading two books a month and for good reason: Humans have been writing down stories for 2000 years, there's just no way you're going to catch up in one lifetime. I reread one of
Breece D'J Pancake's stories the other night. He wrote it when he was 25, a year before he shot himself in the head and one paragraph of his prose has more truth in it than every word I've written put together. This could be disparaging, I guess, but considering I'm not suicidal there's still time for me to catch up.
5. Anticipate problems'What problems?', you ask; 'Either you write or you don't'. Well--no. There are people who write (mostly everyone) and then there are writers (very few). At some point, you are going to have to decide which one you are and give up that day job and cushy 401k (it'll look cushy in retrospect, trust me). The kind of problems a writer faces are everywhere: No insurance, people reacting to your job with a mixture of pity and disrespect, a bazillion rejection letters. I was a freelancer living off of a script option and what I could pull from articles here and there for about a year. This did not work for me. I developed a good amount of debt and I'm one of those guys who needs a lot of work, if there's very little, I'll procrastinate or not do it at all. My day job at
Frontiers is great because it allows me to work in the field I love (arts & entertainment) and meet people who are inspiring, but it also affords me the time and security to focus on my own projects. Also, I get health insurance. Nobody wants to be a starving artist: Think ahead.
6. Set goalsBe it article, chapter, script pages, submissions, calling contacts, whatever- you need to take the nebulous dreams you have and break them down into actionable items (that's GTD speak). Novels don't write themselves overnight, but if you break them down into chunks, they'll be manageable, plus, you'll get to feel success and accomplishment along the way.
7. Display a positive attitudeYou're a writer, but this doesn't give you a license to be cranky and critical of everything. I don't buy into that image of the artist as disaffected whatnot. It's a pose. If you want to be a writer, presumably it's because you think you have something to say about the human condition. It'll probably be more accurate if you are a part of it. Plus, whose work do you think gets published work- cute, friendly guy at cocktail party chatting up publisher or bitter, pasty angry guy, smoking dope in Ma's basement?
