For today's post, Jason D. Bryant (@Jason_D_Bryant) has generously offered to share his writing experience and provide advice for writers plagued with negativity. Dig in!
Entertain Your Inner-Reader
Have you asked yourself these questions or made these excuses:
“I don’t know what to write!” “I can’t think of anything good!” “I want to write this story but will anyone care for it?” “Is this going to be a great seller or will it be a waste of my time?” “Oh, I am so suffering for writers block!” “I want everyone to like this story but know one knows me.” “Am I good enough to write?”
I have an opinion on each one of these questions, concerns, and comments that bring down each and every author, famous and unknown. There is a solution to every writer’s block case, for each person who wishes to write but fear stops them, and for every shred of self-doubt that all artists have. And here it is:
Write for the audience of YOU!
There is an old politican quote, “Fling enough bullshit on the barn wall, and eventually something will stick.” This technique actually works but this is for desperate people who are seeking an audience. Being an author or an artist of self expression, this should never be the case. George Lucas didn’t make Star Wars for an audience of a grandscale, and 20th Century FOX didn’t see it going anywhere at all, ever. (That’s why they let him keep ALL the rights!) He did it because it was the story he enjoyed and he wanted to tell. And look how history & the world has changed because of one man’s simple story that became a universal phenominan!
George Lucas, Nora Roberts, Danielle Steel, Stephen King, Eli Roth, Wes Craven, R.L. Stein, Stephenie Meyer, James Cameron, Steven Speilberg, Stan Lee, Oscar Wilde, H.G. Wells, Dav Pikley, J.R.R. Tolkien, James Patterson, William Peter Blatey, Margaret Mitchell, Ray Bradbury, & Gene Roddenberry: every single one these artists/writers had a simple idea and wrote what they enjoyed reading about, dreaming about, thinking about, or just plain had an interest in the topic. (History did the rest.)
The same should go for YOU, the writer. If the topic or genre or inspiration is enough for you to say, “Hhmmm?”, then that is where it begins. Just the interest in the story alone is the fuel that begins the artists’s fire of involvement & dedication. In Laymen’s terms: write what you would enjoy reading, create would you would enjoy seeing.
However, there is one more step in this process of easing your mind, and this is a key important factor: write what you know! If you are a die-hard racing fan and you wish to write a book, I wouldn’t recommend writing a fictional novel about some villiage civil war in 17th century China! If you are a fun-lover of cartoon & childrens books and you wish to write a children’s story, i wouldn’t recommend doing a thesis on the mind of Adolph Hilter & how Play-Doh was invented; and how they nsync! Write a story based off racing. If you have a fear and want to write a scary story, write what you fear. No one knows more about you and your interests than YOU!
In closing to this advise in self help, I leave you with a quote that many claim, both fictional & non-fictional but nonetheless, it’s a great line (…and I wish I really knew who said it first):
“Don’t be a great man, just be a man. Let history make its own judgements.”
Til next time-
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