I was just checking out some of the blogs over on Writer's Digest and found one that reached right into my chest and gave my heart a good ole tug.
First the blog then I'll elaborate:
Are You Too Ambitious for Your Own Good?Posted by Jane
Ira Glass has some of the best advice I've ever read for writers, at least in relation to great storytelling. He's said that you have to be willing to be bad at what you do for a long time until you actually can achieve the vision of perfection you have in your head. He even puts himself out on a limb and offers recordings illuminating how bad he was at radio when he first started. I was reminded of Ira when my writer-friend Teresa Fleming shared with me the following letter from Charles Dickens, where he responds to an aspiring writer.
Tuesday, Feb. 5th, 1867.
DEAR SIR,
I have looked at the larger half of the first volume of your novel, and have pursued the more difficult points of the story through the other two volumes.
You will, of course, receive my opinion as that of an individual writer and student of art, who by no means claims to be infallible.
I think you are too ambitious, and that you have not sufficient knowledge of life or character to venture on so comprehensive an attempt. Evidences of inexperience in every way, and of your power being far below the situations that you imagine, present themselves to me in almost every page I have read. It would greatly surprise me if you found a publisher for this story, on trying your fortune in that line, or derived anything from it but weariness and bitterness of spirit.
On the evidence thus put before me, I cannot even entirely satisfy myself that you have the faculty of authorship latent within you. If you have not, and yet pursue a vocation towards which you have no call, you cannot choose but be a wretched man. Let me counsel you to have the patience to form yourself carefully, and the courage to renounce the endeavour if you cannot establish your case on a very much smaller scale. You see around you every day, how many outlets there are for short pieces of fiction in all kinds. Try if you can achieve any success within these modest limits (I have practised in my time what I preach to you), and in the meantime put your three volumes away.
Faithfully yours.
Yikes, right? (You can read more Dickens letters here.) Here's the secret, though: If you're the writer, do you read this and think: I should just stop trying. Or do you read this and think: He doesn't know how wrong he is! Writers in training know they're not good, but they know they're getting better. And they go on to fight another day.
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Now for sometime now I've struggled with the idea of pursuing what I really want to do. As often is the case when I look at anything I've done, I am by a fair margin the harshest critic.
Whether I'm taking pictures or writing pieces of any length I'm nearly always convinced that its the worst thing ever and feel this compulsion to either redo it or delete it all and walk away.
When I first read the Dickens's letter I immediately became the "if that was me, I'd walk away with my tail between my legs" author. But the more I thought about it I realized that even as cold as Dickens's letter was I discovered that I actually believe it to be inspiring. More and more I find myself viewing the people who wish to destroy your dreams by saying "you'll never make it" or "you should give up now before you embarass yourself" as fuel to push on and eventually prove them wrong.
I've been called mediocre before. I'm still shooting and writing.
I've been called talentless before. I'm still shooting and writing.
In short Dickens letter to this unnamed author has once again sparked that drive in me that wants to shove the negativity down the throats of the naysayers out there who would like nothing better than to keep any and everyone with the passion to create from doing what they enjoy.
Okay enough soapboxing, I've got tales to weave.
30 July 2009
29 July 2009
I Need About 10 Hours Added to Everyday
Days like today remind me of why I quit trying to juggle my two favorite hobbies/wanna-be-careers.
For the longest time I was working on my photography skills and little else. Then my long neglected passion for writing bit my backside and I started trying to write nightly and wiggle in time to take pictures of willing subjects, do the occassional wedding and various landscapes. Doesn't sound too difficult right?
Well add to my passions the 35-45 hour a week day job, a commute that now takes nearly 40 minutes (both to and from work), the responsibilites of being a husband and father and any other "normalities" of life and one is left with very little time to devote to one's chosen crafts.
So for much of the last 19 months I've kicked photography completely out of the picture and focused the vast majority of my free time on writing (both the study and practical application of).
About a month ago I found out that I had a shot to work with someone I'd been dying to work with next week and decided I had to take this once in a blue moon opportunity. Well not to put too fine a point on it, I'm way out of practice when it comes to working with a living, breathing person. I'm trying to scramble to find time to schedule a warmup shoot or a half dozen between now and next friday.
I'm also struggling to make sense of the cacophony in my mind and write coherent short stories, novellas and novels as well. My wife finds it amusing when I say this but I've read things by other writers that tell me I'm not alone.
Each and every idea my imagination births has its own "voice" in my mind. Once the concept is birthed in my thick skull it swirls around building moment and taking a more definate shape. As time passes and it becomes a solid enough "being" it starts "speaking" to my mind's ear. The longer I try to ignore it the louder it gets and eventually I have this intangible thing in my head that it pounding it's fists against the walls of my skull in an effort to break free. Over time several of these can start their attempted jailbreak at one time and I'm left with daily migraines and a sense of confusion.
I know maybe that sounds a touch odd to those of you who don't write but that's the best way I can explain it. I've already had a horror novel, an epic fantasy, a private investigator novel and a post-apocalyptic novella swirling around in the inner reaches of the right side of my brain but over the last few weeks I've added the concept for at least one horror short, a dystopian novel in the Orwellian tradition and a character driven dramatic short (the last of which poked its obnoxious head up last night at about 2am).
Maybe I'm not alone here but with the shortness of hours available to me, I sometimes feel like I'm never going to get it all out of my head (especially once they all start stepping on each other).
Well that's enough wasted time here, maybe I'll go into my corner of the house and get something sorted out (lord I hope nothing new shows up while I'm in there).
Good night.
For the longest time I was working on my photography skills and little else. Then my long neglected passion for writing bit my backside and I started trying to write nightly and wiggle in time to take pictures of willing subjects, do the occassional wedding and various landscapes. Doesn't sound too difficult right?
Well add to my passions the 35-45 hour a week day job, a commute that now takes nearly 40 minutes (both to and from work), the responsibilites of being a husband and father and any other "normalities" of life and one is left with very little time to devote to one's chosen crafts.
So for much of the last 19 months I've kicked photography completely out of the picture and focused the vast majority of my free time on writing (both the study and practical application of).
About a month ago I found out that I had a shot to work with someone I'd been dying to work with next week and decided I had to take this once in a blue moon opportunity. Well not to put too fine a point on it, I'm way out of practice when it comes to working with a living, breathing person. I'm trying to scramble to find time to schedule a warmup shoot or a half dozen between now and next friday.
I'm also struggling to make sense of the cacophony in my mind and write coherent short stories, novellas and novels as well. My wife finds it amusing when I say this but I've read things by other writers that tell me I'm not alone.
Each and every idea my imagination births has its own "voice" in my mind. Once the concept is birthed in my thick skull it swirls around building moment and taking a more definate shape. As time passes and it becomes a solid enough "being" it starts "speaking" to my mind's ear. The longer I try to ignore it the louder it gets and eventually I have this intangible thing in my head that it pounding it's fists against the walls of my skull in an effort to break free. Over time several of these can start their attempted jailbreak at one time and I'm left with daily migraines and a sense of confusion.
I know maybe that sounds a touch odd to those of you who don't write but that's the best way I can explain it. I've already had a horror novel, an epic fantasy, a private investigator novel and a post-apocalyptic novella swirling around in the inner reaches of the right side of my brain but over the last few weeks I've added the concept for at least one horror short, a dystopian novel in the Orwellian tradition and a character driven dramatic short (the last of which poked its obnoxious head up last night at about 2am).
Maybe I'm not alone here but with the shortness of hours available to me, I sometimes feel like I'm never going to get it all out of my head (especially once they all start stepping on each other).
Well that's enough wasted time here, maybe I'll go into my corner of the house and get something sorted out (lord I hope nothing new shows up while I'm in there).
Good night.
24 July 2009
Contest Submission Update
In case there are any of you out there wondering how I fared in the short story contest I entered at the start of the month:
I was not one of the finalists.
How do I feel about losing?
Well I'm obviously not thrilled about it but I'm not beating myself up either (at least I haven't been since the day the finalists were posted).
Of course I'm biased and think that my story was better than at least one of the five finalists (and just as good as three of them) but I'm not a judge. I still voted for my favorite of the three best as it would be just poor sportsmanship if I refused to give the better writer his/her due just because I didn't make the cut.
As for the story I'm going to take it back to the drawing board and make some additions to it. I feel without the less than 800 word limit placed on it for the contest I can spin up an enjoyable yarn that tells a more complete version (more in line with my original vision) in about twice the word count.
Anyhoo its time to stop wasting words on this blog and throw some more at one of my stories.
Good night and good luck.
I was not one of the finalists.
How do I feel about losing?
Well I'm obviously not thrilled about it but I'm not beating myself up either (at least I haven't been since the day the finalists were posted).
Of course I'm biased and think that my story was better than at least one of the five finalists (and just as good as three of them) but I'm not a judge. I still voted for my favorite of the three best as it would be just poor sportsmanship if I refused to give the better writer his/her due just because I didn't make the cut.
As for the story I'm going to take it back to the drawing board and make some additions to it. I feel without the less than 800 word limit placed on it for the contest I can spin up an enjoyable yarn that tells a more complete version (more in line with my original vision) in about twice the word count.
Anyhoo its time to stop wasting words on this blog and throw some more at one of my stories.
Good night and good luck.
08 July 2009
An Update On Things
Just thought I'd pop in real quick and touch on a few things.
This past weekend we celebrated July 4th and during the fireworks show I was slapped full on with a brand new story idea. I spent most of the day Sunday committing the opening chapter to "paper" and am pleased where I am going with it.
The inclusion of my new post-apocalyptic yarn now brings my total works in progress count to four: an epic fantasy, a hard-boiled P.I. tale, a supernatural horror/thriller and the aforementioned Sci-Fi post-apocalyptic tale. And those are not counting any short stories that may pop in my head (like the one I entered in the magazine contest my last post touched on).
In addition to all the above (as well as my duties as a damn decent but far from perfect father and husband) I'm also getting the ball rolling again in my other favorite artistic medium: photography. I've not taken many pictures in the last 18 months but I feel now is the right time to slip into my old grove.
As it stands now I've got a ultra-huge shoot coming but I'm not going to say more in case something unfortunate happens and screws everything up.
I'm also still trying to get a halfway worthwhile website up to hawk my stuff and keep you all informed but a fellow can only juggle so many creative pursuits at once, you know?
But yeah thought I'd give a little update to any of my micro-legion of fans (even if each and everyone of you are people I know personally and can see daily if I tried harder).
This past weekend we celebrated July 4th and during the fireworks show I was slapped full on with a brand new story idea. I spent most of the day Sunday committing the opening chapter to "paper" and am pleased where I am going with it.
The inclusion of my new post-apocalyptic yarn now brings my total works in progress count to four: an epic fantasy, a hard-boiled P.I. tale, a supernatural horror/thriller and the aforementioned Sci-Fi post-apocalyptic tale. And those are not counting any short stories that may pop in my head (like the one I entered in the magazine contest my last post touched on).
In addition to all the above (as well as my duties as a damn decent but far from perfect father and husband) I'm also getting the ball rolling again in my other favorite artistic medium: photography. I've not taken many pictures in the last 18 months but I feel now is the right time to slip into my old grove.
As it stands now I've got a ultra-huge shoot coming but I'm not going to say more in case something unfortunate happens and screws everything up.
I'm also still trying to get a halfway worthwhile website up to hawk my stuff and keep you all informed but a fellow can only juggle so many creative pursuits at once, you know?
But yeah thought I'd give a little update to any of my micro-legion of fans (even if each and everyone of you are people I know personally and can see daily if I tried harder).
01 July 2009
Wish Me Luck
Yesterday morning I submitted a (very) short story to a magazine for their monthly contest.
This is the first time I've done such a thing and I'm anxious to see how I fare (the contest usually draws about 500 entries a month).
I'd be thrilled if I make the final five but like any sane person I'm hoping for an outright win.
The grand prize is nothing more than publication in the magazine but that's one more publishing credit than I have right now and the more of those I can display the better.
If my story doesn't make it to at least the final five I'll take it, polish it up, make it slightly longer to tell a "fuller" story and more likely than not post it here.
Wish me luck.
This is the first time I've done such a thing and I'm anxious to see how I fare (the contest usually draws about 500 entries a month).
I'd be thrilled if I make the final five but like any sane person I'm hoping for an outright win.
The grand prize is nothing more than publication in the magazine but that's one more publishing credit than I have right now and the more of those I can display the better.
If my story doesn't make it to at least the final five I'll take it, polish it up, make it slightly longer to tell a "fuller" story and more likely than not post it here.
Wish me luck.
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