Ask a writer what audience they're writing for, and nine times out of ten, you'll get back the same answer:
The first person who said this probably thought they were being
immensely clever. The thousandth person who said it probably didn't
think much of it at all.
Well, they might have thought, Thank goodness that one writer
came up with such a clever answer to that question. Now I can answer it
very quickly and get back to my writing without delay.
And there's something to be said for that.
Aspiring writers are always pestering professionals for that one
secret with the power to instantly transform them from unknown hack to
internationally-renowned super-pop-god.
But there is no one secret. There is only talent and hard work and patience and having a cousin who works at Random House.
And when you ask a professional writer questions like these,
you're either asking them to lie to you or to disappoint you. How do I
know that this is true?
Well, if any writer could ever give a satisfying answer to these questions PEOPLE WOULD STOP ASKING THEM.
"Excuse me, Mr. Gaiman, but how do you overcome writer's block?"
"Oh, hadn't you heard, small boy? Mr. Moore answered that question yesterday. You just need to eat more fiber."
All across the land, the news would spread! "Fight Writer's Block! Eat Fiber!" Suddenly, struggling writers from across the globe would rise up as brilliant, prolific voices in this new high-fiber golden age of literature!
An aspiring writer in Nevada: "I always knew I liked fiber, but I never knew why!"
A would-be writer in Kentucky: "I've been eatin' beans all week, and now I can't stop the ideas from slidin' out!"
And somewhere, Robert McKee stands on an empty stage: "How am I going to pay my butler now?"
No, no, no. There is no one satisfying answer to any of these questions. (Jeeves breathes a sigh of relief.) There is only the satisfaction of success.
These are all anxiety questions, not craft questions. When you ask these questions, you don't REALLY want to know the answer. You just want Grant Morrison to pat you on the head and tell you that everything will be okay. Or for Brian Bendis to grin and say, "What an insightful question! Please take over half my titles before I have a heart attack!"
And there's nothing wrong with that. We all look for the reassurance and approval of bald men.
I mean "people we respect." Moving on!
When we look to the writers we respect as fonts of wisdom, we are diminishing our own ability to innovate and, potentially, surpass them. When we accept their answers as fact, we are setting ourselves on auto-pilot and blindly trusting that they've pointed us in the right direction.
Does that mean that you shouldn't ask experts questions? Of course not. But we have to get out of this habit of asking silly, non-question questions like "Where do you get your ideas?"
We are writers, and we need to think like writers. When we ask questions, they should be rooted in our craft.
"How do you judge when you've put too much dialogue in a word balloon?"
"Why did you stop using captions in your stories?"
"How much fiber do you eat in a day?"
Okay, maybe not the last one.
Obviously, you know that Harlan Ellison is lying when he tells you that he gets all of his ideas from Poughkeepsie. (Trust me, I checked.) Now, if he said, "Read constantly and question everything," you might say, "Hey, that's a pretty good answer."
But it doesn't settle anything.
What works for Harlan Ellison might not work for you. That's why you asked Geoff Johns, Judd Winnick, and Greg Rucka the same question!
Even the very good answers aren't perfect answers, so it's important to stay critical. There are no absolutes in writing, and very often it's the ideas we hold dearest that hold us back the most.
Consider:
"Write what you know."
"The villain should be sympathetic."
"It's better to show than to tell."
Now:
"Writing is a process of discovery."
"You haven't done your job unless the reader utterly despises your villain."
"It is better to suggest something than to show it."
There are no good answers.
Well, except for these:
"Ideas flit in and out of our consciousness all the time. They are the immediate, unfiltered reaction to the bizarre incongruities of everyday life. Be prepared with a pen and paper or some kind of electronic recording device, so that you can catch these stray thoughts before they slip away."
"Writer's block is not about ability. It's about anxiety. To fight off the anxiety, either break your task down into smaller, more manageable parts, or switch to a different project for a while. The important thing is to remember that, yes, you can write and that you still have plenty of good ideas. Give it a little while, and by the time you return to your original problem, you may be surprised to find that your unconscious mind has already worked out a solution for you!"
Oh, yeah. And:
Next week, how to write NOT for yourself.
Drew Melbourne recently deposited a paycheck for the first issue of ArchEnemies, due out sometime in early '06 from XXXX XXXXX Comics. Top Cow should be releasing his second series, Heroes of Tomorrow,
around the same time. Until then, no, there's no good reason that you
should trust anything he says. For more on Drew, check out his website,
DrewMelbourne.com.
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