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.
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