More Writing Myths for Busting
Barbara DaCosta‘s picture book debut, Nighttime Ninja, illustrated by Caldecott Award winner Ed Young, will appear in Fall 2012 (Little, Brown). Her story “Cabin 6″ appeared in Minnesota Crime Wave’s Resort to Murder (Nodin Press). Her website is http://www.barbaradacosta.com.
How many of us have been held back by myths? Author Camille Minichino outlined four writing myths earlier on this blog. She amplified on the hoary axioms of “write what you know, write every day, write it and they will come, and writing is solitary.”
I’d like to add my own favorite writing myths to be busted. (Whether these are myths or delusions, I’ll leave to you to decide.)
1. You have to be neurotic to be a good writer/poet/artist/actor.
Reality: Health and happiness are ever-so-much-more-pleasant states of being.
You don’t need to be miserable to be a successful creative artist! If, however, you like creating suffering characters, what you do need is empathy. That, plus observational skills. Of course, you’ll still tap into your own experiences to some extent as you write, but you don’t need to go to extremes in your own behavior. All you need is to amplify a quality to make it stand out in a character. In other words, the personality quirk that allows someone to justify stealing a car is not that different from the person who steals a paperclip.
2. You have to work on one project at a time.
Reality: One-track Mind, meet Scatterbrain.
When you first start writing, you will study craft: style, voice, wording, continuity, structure, plotting, and so on. You’ll also figure out practicalities of when and how long are you able to write coherently at each sitting (hint: we are not all capable of writing for eight hours a day). In addition, you also will experiment with how your mind works best. For some people, that means working on one piece, straight through, however long it takes, not allowing any distraction. For others, that is impossible. The scatterbrained (read: ADHD, or, “creative type”) will juggle several projects in order to have their minds and manuscript stay fresh. You need to figure out which works for you.
3. This looks easy, I’ll have it done in no time at all.
Reality: Hah!
Where y equals alloted time for project, z equals your age, a equals number of people and pets in household, c equals dishes and laundry, and n equals surprise guests, then the length of time it will take to complete a given project is: y + (7 x 24z) – 60a + TV – 3c / 24n x FB = Infinity.
4. Writing will lead to fame and fortune.
Reality: Luck happens.
First, you have to write decently and to have something about your writing that grabs people who aren’t related to you. Second, you have to be willing to revise and improve your work. Third, you have to be involved with marketing your work.
At the end of the day, if you also make a little bit of fortune, as they say, luck happens.
Let’s hear what your favorite writing myths are!
December 9, 2011
Posted in: Guest Blogs
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4 Responses
Barbara, I know there are a lot of people, especially those a little older than the idealistic young, who are hesitant to take that first step because of just such myths as these. If you’ve helped even one writer cross that threshold, you’ve done a wondrous thing
Barbara: Thanks so much for this post!! It should be of great help to other authors and would-be authors. And thanks for referencing Camille’s post.
Myth: Literary Fiction, however that is defined, is so superior to other forms of fiction, such as “I, Robot”, “Sherlock Holmes” or anything by Dickens, Poe, Dashiell Hammett, or even Stephen King.
Fact: one can get great meaning from any really well crafted story. Literary Fiction affectionatos, get over yourself.
Here’s another Myth: “I have this great idea for a book, let me tell you about it (and then you can write it).”
Reality: You have the vision for it. You care about it. You write it! Even if we’re perfect strangers. Even if you’re a friend. Even if you’re a phisher on Craigslist who wants to split the “profits” of your idea and my hard work.
Besides, then you’ll get to bask in the pleasure of accomplishment!
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