So here I am writing along and things are going really well. Things haven't been this smooth in ages and I'm not disappointed with how things are going at all, which is rare.
Then I see this thing Neil Gaiman wrote and I think, 'Oh God. How in the hell does anyone get that good. My stuff is such crap compared to that (and it should be he's been at this a ...professionally he's been at this a whole lot longer than I have) I can't imagine writing so well. (Actually I do imagine it all the time but I don't believe those imaginings will ever come true.)
That's when it occurs to me to wonder what Neil's writing was like when he was starting out. Surely he wasn't always this good. Not even the great Neil Gaiman starts out this good, so if only I could read something he wrote that wasn't so good, a grocery list directions to his house anything.
I then realize I don't need the writing. I only need to know it exists somewhere. Once upon a time, even Neil Gaiman's writing was just...OK, or at least not nearly as brilliant as it is now. You don't have to see it, or read it. you just have to know that he was OK once and then he got better, and he hasn't stopped getting better, so maybe you'll get better to if only you simply try.
Write. Write poorly, then write more and better and don't stop. And maybe that's the only secret about writing worth knowing. And it wasn't really all the secret to begin with.
Figuring out this simple truth was meant to be the hard part.
Turns out it's not. Proving it's true is the hard part.
Damn. I was really hoping that was the hard part.
Then I see this thing Neil Gaiman wrote and I think, 'Oh God. How in the hell does anyone get that good. My stuff is such crap compared to that (and it should be he's been at this a ...professionally he's been at this a whole lot longer than I have) I can't imagine writing so well. (Actually I do imagine it all the time but I don't believe those imaginings will ever come true.)
That's when it occurs to me to wonder what Neil's writing was like when he was starting out. Surely he wasn't always this good. Not even the great Neil Gaiman starts out this good, so if only I could read something he wrote that wasn't so good, a grocery list directions to his house anything.
I then realize I don't need the writing. I only need to know it exists somewhere. Once upon a time, even Neil Gaiman's writing was just...OK, or at least not nearly as brilliant as it is now. You don't have to see it, or read it. you just have to know that he was OK once and then he got better, and he hasn't stopped getting better, so maybe you'll get better to if only you simply try.
Write. Write poorly, then write more and better and don't stop. And maybe that's the only secret about writing worth knowing. And it wasn't really all the secret to begin with.
Figuring out this simple truth was meant to be the hard part.
Turns out it's not. Proving it's true is the hard part.
Damn. I was really hoping that was the hard part.
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