Okay, so here’s a little bit for my fellow inkmonkeys…
I’m about to tell you a story that’ll prove why pure, unfiltered GRIT matters more than your fancy MFA when it comes to slinging sentences.
This tale might just be the difference between you cranking out masterpieces or crying into your keyboard while refreshing your Twitter mentions.
Here’s the deal…
There once was a writer who took more hits than a punch-drunk boxer at last call…
We’re talking about Octavia Butler, who Stephen King called “a master of science fiction” and who proved every doubter wrong.
She worked as a dishwasher, a telemarketer, a potato chip inspector. Basically any job that would let her write between shifts.
She’d get up at 2 AM to write before work, scribbling stories while other people slept.
She heard “no” more times than a toddler at a knife store.
People told her Black women didn’t write science fiction.
THEY TOLD HER WRONG.
She went on to become the first science fiction writer to receive the MacArthur “Genius” Grant, won multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, and set fire through the sci-fi landscape.
The takeaway?
Writing isn’t about waiting for the muse to descend from her golden tower with a pumpkin spice latte in hand.
It’s about:
1. Writing like someone set your pants on fire. Every. Damn. Day.
2. Treating your craft like it’s a bar fight. You go in swinging and don’t stop until you’re done.
3. Reading everything you can get your hands on, even if it’s the ingredients on your cereal box.
4. Finishing your shit. Half-finished manuscripts are just fancy doorstops.
And as legendary infomercial pitchman Ron Popeil would say…
“But wait, there’s more…”
I’ve got a whole arsenal of writing techniques that’ll make your prose punch readers in the face (in a good way.)
I know you want the sauce
So here it is:
– Write in blood. Metaphorically. Use metaphors and analogies. Spice up your writing. You don’t need to go overboard. Just don’t make it boring (Please don’t actually write in blood. That’s weird and unsanitary.)
– Kill your darlings with extreme prejudice. Great writing is re-writing. Bang out that first draft, let it sit for a few days or even a week and the come back to it. Be ruthless. Every word pays rent and the rent was due yesterday.
– Embrace the chaos of first drafts like it’s your long-lost drunk uncle. Sometimes being structured sucks. Just let it flow. Pour it out. It’s easier to organise when you’ve got a shit load of words down.
I mean we’re made of rejection letters and fuelled by caffeine and spite.
And if anyone tells you you can’t?
Write anyway. Write harder. Write until your keyboard begs for mercy.
Because that’s what real writers do.
Now excuse me while I mainline this coffee and wrestle with all of these google docs.
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
Stephen Walker