1. The tortured artist is the best artist
Let’s dispel this myth right away. The romanticizing of the tortured artist has handcuffed too many talents. I see this misconception everywhere. There is a perception that pain is somehow deeper than joy, but that is simply not the case. A glancing perusal of what you love in any genre will tell you quite suddenly that it’s not. It is not true in the visual arts and it’s not true in music and it’s not true in writing or poetry either. What is true is very simple: if I was holding someone’s hand right now I wouldn’t be writing this. I have known a lot of artists who attribute their productivity to the wrong causes. Of course sadness has produced some of your best work, it has made you want to do good work. Sadness has made you want to be alone (or left you there against your will) and it has made you want to release an overwhelming emotion. But I promise you, if you take some time when you are overwhelmed with positive emotion, you will write just as well. I think this is so important to know, especially for developing artists. I don’t want to be mistaken, I like a great deal of dark and sad and tortured art. I have written volumes of it. But there is a danger in letting artists equate sadness with methodology. If they love their art they begin to love being sad. It limits them in their art, and in their life. Write from intensity and honesty, even if you’re tortured—but know you don’t have to torture yourself to be honest or intense.
2. Writer’s block is a thing
We’ve named it and given it a kind of legitimacy. We’ve accepted it as a fact of life like storms and sicknesses. We throw our hands up and say “oh well, I’m blocked,” and sometimes we give up for long periods of time. Why?
Honestly, writer’s block doesn’t exist. First of all, never say you can’t write until you’ve actually put a word down. That first word usually takes care of the rest. When we say we have writer’s block it’s often the case that we’ve yet to actually try. Stop waiting for an idea before you start writing. Writing is a great way to get ideas. Beyond that there are a thousand reasons you may be having a bad day or an uninspired time in life, and there are also a thousand things you can do about it. If you’re tired, sleep. If you’re uninspired, read. Most importantly, if for some reason you’re afraid, be honest with yourself. Fear loves to disguise itself as “writer’s block.” Don’t give up. Writer’s don’t get worse, that’s not how this particular skill works.
3. Write for yourself not for an audience
I hear this advice often and I think it’s terrible. And let me be clear: it’s good advice if you really truly actually with no pretense don’t want anyone to read your work. It’s perfect advice for diarists. If you do anything else it’s absurd to not consider the fact that there is an audience. Who that audience is, that’s up to you. Maybe you’re writing a love letter—you better do that with your beloved in mind. Maybe you’re writing a speech, and so forget the beloved. Tailor your words for their occasion and their recipient and their medium, that’s just basic common sense. This is a post going on my blog. It’s intended for writers who also read my work, and that’s the audience I’m writing it for. If I wrote it for myself it would be 4 times this length and dense with literary allusion and self-referential indulgences. That’s why you don’t write for yourself. Write what you’d like to read sure, but also ask yourself if you’d still read it if it was written by someone else.
4. Write what you know
This is advice that I’m convinced came about for very new and (understand this) very bad writers. What I want to say about it is more of a clarification than anything, because we’re going to assume you are not a very bad writer.
So yes, you should know your subject material. As a matter of fact studying it is probably a good idea. You should also choose something you have some passion or connection to. If it bores you it will bore everyone. But… “Write what you know” does not mean to limit yourself. It means if you want to write science fiction then do so, but also know the genre and put some of yourself in it. Write as yourself. Write the story or the poem or the song or the insanely original abstraction within you. But don’t use the old “write what you know” mantra to box yourself inside the walls of your uninspiring day-to-day. Imagination is limitless. The page is blank and the artist is as free as anyone that has ever lived.
5. Craft above content
Here I want to lump together a hundred other bits of advice and education that I think overemphasizes craft over content. What you say matters, just as much as how you say it. There are of course legendary writers who can write about anything and make it enjoyable, but these writers exist as miraculous exceptions. A handful per generation. Instead the rest of us have to work hard (and by the way, you do have to work hard), and so we study and we seek advice and we learn and learn and learn the craft. The best I can say here is that this will maybe make you very popular with other writers. Craft is important, but never to the exclusion of content. Again I’ll leave it to your glancing perusal. It’s a very evident truth that we sometimes forget inside our own work; It’s true that hard work beats all, but great content lifts up great craft much quicker than the other way around.
