5 ms·

This is pretty good advice. I've been a professional writer in some manner or another for 20 years or so, and I've become keenly aware of how useless I can be w

by CPLX 10y ago

This is pretty good advice. I've been a professional writer in some manner or another for 20 years or so, and I've become keenly aware of how useless I can be when confronted with a blank sheet/screen and a mandate. Yet, once it's started it tends to finish very quickly, usually with just one draft. I used to sort of solve this problem by writing it in my head over the course of a day or three and then spitting out some basic language to start things off. Lately I've come to the realization that almost any level of first draft, no matter how awful or off the mark, is sufficient for me to dive right in and finish writing it quickly. So my go-to tactic is to verbally run down what I need written to someone else, like an assistant or someone who works for me who knows the topic, and then start with whatever they come up with and go from there, effectively eliminating the blank screen problem. The basic premise of this is insightful, there's really no reason why writing has to start with an empty page. I think that's the more interesting observation than the specifics of how he gets the ball rolling, which could easily vary from person to person.

zck 10y ago
> Lately I've come to the realization that almost any level of first draft, no matter how awful or off the mark, is sufficient for me to dive right in and finish writing it quickly. Dan Harmon (the creator of Community, and Rick and Morty) has phrased it as "prove you suck". From his reddit AMA (https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5azrwi/im_dan_harmon_executive_producer_and_star_of/d9l3sxr/ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5azrwi/im_dan_harmon_...) (paragraph breaks added; nothing edited): > ...if you simply change your goal from "writing well" to "writing badly," you will be a veritable fucking fountain of material, because guess what, man, we don't like to admit it, because we're raised to think lack of confidence is synonymous with paralysis, but, let's just be honest with ourselves and each other: we can only hope to be good writers. > We can only ever hope and wish that will ever happen, that's a bird in the bush. The one in the hand is: we suck. We are terrified we suck, and that terror is oppressive and pervasive because we can VERY WELL see the possibility that we suck. We are well acquainted with it. We know how we suck like the backs of our shitty, untalented hands. We could write a fucking book on how bad a book would be if we just wrote one instead of sitting at a desk scratching our dumb heads trying to figure out how, by some miracle, the next thing we type is going to be brilliant. > It isn't going to be brilliant. You stink. Prove it. It will go faster. And then, after you write something incredibly shitty in about six hours, it's no problem making it better in passes, because in addition to being absolutely untalented, you are also a mean, petty CRITIC. You know how you suck and you know how everything sucks and when you see something that sucks, you know exactly how to fix it, because you're an asshole. > So that is my advice about getting unblocked. Switch from team "I will one day write something good" to team "I have no choice but to write a piece of shit" and then take off your "bad writer" hat and replace it with a "petty critic" hat and go to town on that poor hack's draft and that's your second draft. Fifteen drafts later, or whenever someone paying you starts yelling at you, who knows, maybe the piece of shit will be good enough or maybe everyone in the world will turn out to be so hopelessly stupid that they think bad things are good and in any case, you get to spend so much less time at a keyboard and so much more at a bar where you really belong because medicine because childhood trauma because the Supreme Court didn't make abortion an option until your unwanted ass was in its third trimester.
- mlboss 10y ago
  Awesome advice :)

by CPLX 10y ago

zck 10y ago

> Lately I've come to the realization that almost any level of first draft, no matter how awful or off the mark, is sufficient for me to dive right in and finish writing it quickly. Dan Harmon (the creator of Community, and Rick and Morty) has phrased it as "prove you suck". From his reddit AMA (https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5azrwi/im_dan_harmon_executive_producer_and_star_of/d9l3sxr/ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5azrwi/im_dan_harmon_...) (paragraph breaks added; nothing edited): > ...if you simply change your goal from "writing well" to "writing badly," you will be a veritable fucking fountain of material, because guess what, man, we don't like to admit it, because we're raised to think lack of confidence is synonymous with paralysis, but, let's just be honest with ourselves and each other: we can only hope to be good writers. > We can only ever hope and wish that will ever happen, that's a bird in the bush. The one in the hand is: we suck. We are terrified we suck, and that terror is oppressive and pervasive because we can VERY WELL see the possibility that we suck. We are well acquainted with it. We know how we suck like the backs of our shitty, untalented hands. We could write a fucking book on how bad a book would be if we just wrote one instead of sitting at a desk scratching our dumb heads trying to figure out how, by some miracle, the next thing we type is going to be brilliant. > It isn't going to be brilliant. You stink. Prove it. It will go faster. And then, after you write something incredibly shitty in about six hours, it's no problem making it better in passes, because in addition to being absolutely untalented, you are also a mean, petty CRITIC. You know how you suck and you know how everything sucks and when you see something that sucks, you know exactly how to fix it, because you're an asshole. > So that is my advice about getting unblocked. Switch from team "I will one day write something good" to team "I have no choice but to write a piece of shit" and then take off your "bad writer" hat and replace it with a "petty critic" hat and go to town on that poor hack's draft and that's your second draft. Fifteen drafts later, or whenever someone paying you starts yelling at you, who knows, maybe the piece of shit will be good enough or maybe everyone in the world will turn out to be so hopelessly stupid that they think bad things are good and in any case, you get to spend so much less time at a keyboard and so much more at a bar where you really belong because medicine because childhood trauma because the Supreme Court didn't make abortion an option until your unwanted ass was in its third trimester.

mlboss 10y ago
Awesome advice :)