I want you to all spread the world. "Saturday" will no longer be known as Saturday. I mean, I know the other days of the week do this, but why pay tribute to only one deity at a time? Why not acknowledge all the Titans? Who cares if Saturn/Kronos was the king of them all? That doesn't matter. Forget everything you've ever learned since Kindergarten, yeah? Today is Titansday.
Today I'm going to talk about not comparing your work to that of professionals. This is extremely--extremely (notice that word's in there twice)--hard for me to do. Mostly because I want to be the best. I want to be as good a writer as Victor Hugo, J.K Rowling, Brandon Sanderson, Margaret Mitchell, Robert Jordan, Harper Lee. I want to be able to write a masterpiece. I know I can. But when I sit down to write, I can't. Because it's not good. And I know it's not.
What's a lowly writer to do when he sits down to write the world's next Way of Kings or To Kill a Mockingbird, only to realize that he's not actually that good? First off, I had to realize that this statement is in no way the truth. Because honestly, every one of these writers sucked, too. And they were just as bad, if not worse, than me. This fact acknowledged, it's much easier to get words down on paper.
Second, that whole part about knowing your writing sucks. That's good; you know something's wrong. Isn't that the first step to making your work better? If you haven't figured it out, the answer is "yes." I found that the vast majority of the writing process is actually the revision process. The first draft is just that. The first step. Afterward is when you pick up the broken pieces and try to glue together a cohesive narrative. And then you repeat. Again. And again. Even then, you have to go through and fine tune each sentence, each word, until you feel you've hit just the right pitch, and you can see that final vision, that moment of idea's conception manifested in a book--this is when the music sounds and angels blare their golden trumpets! You also have to remember that these authors haven't just been writing for years, have many more tools in their bag than you do, and can pinpoint problems and fix them easier, but they have professional editors and agents at their disposal, whose advice I'm sure is absolutely invaluable.
Another thing I've found when we compare our writing to these great masters, is we see a trick they used, or they have excellent characters, and we think to ourselves, "Oh, how can I apply that to what I'm writing now? I must use this immediately!" Or we think, "This is ridiculous. There's such a large gap between myself and (insert author's name here) that I just can't." We throw our hands up in the air and give up. Your book lacks dimension and depth, your characters and emotional arc feels flat. For some reason, you just can't do it. Except we don't give up. The only thing keeping us grounded to this dream writing is sheer love of the art. What we--I--need to do is focus on my story. (The one you're writing--though I guess the broader more metaphorical one works, too.) Don't compare it to Way of Kings; that would make anyone give up. Just do the very best you can. Give it all you have to offer. If a trick you learned will work to fix the problem--use it. Change the big things--even if it means chucking the entire thing and starting from scratch! Don't be afraid. And don't try to write Way of Kings, because that's already been done. Focus on making your writing the absolute best it can be.
I hope this has been helpful to all of you! It definitely helped for me to get my thoughts out on paper. :D
Please leave comments! I love hearing from you!
Question of the day: "If you could choose between being an Egyptian deity or a Greek/Roman deity, which would you choose, and who would you be?"
Answer: "I would want to be part of Greek mythology, and I would really want to be Apollo." Now it's your turn!
Signing off:
Jared
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