David Farland's Daily Writing Tip

[dwol...@xmission.com]

Sorry about the format yesterday. I wrote it in MSWord and then
pasted it into an email, not remembering how funky it comes out when
sent. Hopefully, this will begin to address the problem.

MORE ON COURAGE

If I were to write a beattitudes for writers, courage would have to go
at the top of the list. You can't write well without it.

Recently I was speaking on a panel with a science fiction superstar
Orson Scott Card, and he mentioned that he always waited until a book
was due before he began writing it. This surprised me. Many writers
need to have some kind of stress before they can spur themselves into
writing. But writing in fear of missing a deadline causes certain
problems.

Scans of brain waves show that authors and other artists tend to do
their best work in a relaxed, dreamy state. You can't really reach
that state if you're living in terror of bankruptcy because the bills
that are stacking up because you've missed a writing deadline. How
Card manages it, I don't know.

But you can't reach that relaxed state if you are worrying sick
children or friends. Nor can you reach that state if you're terrified
that a reviewer will dis your work.

I knew one author who became a reviewer for nearly twenty-five years.
Once he became a reviewer, he was unable to write. The worry that
others would pick apart his work caused too much stress. He couldn't
begin completing novels or writing short fiction until AFTER he
resigned his post.

I've seen countless writers who start out writing a great novel, sell
it on spec, and then become so worried about how it will be recieved
that they are never able to complete it at the same level that they've
started.

Fear cripples you.

So, to help overcome your worries about criticism, memorize this
little saying: "Any idiot or ass can criticize my work--and many of
them will." That's because it is far easier to throw stones than to
build a castle.

The truth is that no matter how well you write, you're going to find
plenty of people who hate what you do. J.R.R. Tolkien is commonly
credited at being the finest fantasy writer that the genre has ever
produced. But go to Amazon.com and you're bound to find plenty of
people who tell you that he's boring. The same will be true of people
like Frank Herbert and William Shakespeare. The same is true even of
such greats as David Farland!

Such criticism, quite frankly, has little to do with the genius of the author.

Here's a fable: Once upon a time, the fox decided to throw a huge
party and invite everyone to a contest to see who could make the
finest milkshake in the world. A hound dog responded. After months
of research, the hound determined that the best-tasting cream came
from Jersey cows--not guernseys or holsteins or any other breed.
After feeding the Jerseys diets of various grains and grasses, his
keen nose detected that sweet alfalfa mixed with fresh corn and a bit
of clover provided richer cream than any other food source. He found
that the finest vanilla beans in the world were grown in a small
valley in Nicaragua, and that they had to be dried for 38 days and
then ground by hand to just the right thickness for the perfect taste.
Finally, after months of meticulous research, he presented his prize
to the fox--who spat it out and cried, "What the devil kind of
chocolate shake is this?"

The moral of the story of course is that critics are often so enamored
of tales that conform to their own tastes that they are incapable of
recognizing the beauty or power in otherss works. Our political
views, ethical views, and even our own dialect and ways of phrasing
things may act as blinders to keep us from seeing the value of even
the greatest of tales.

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