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    I Suck at Writing: How to Transform Insecurity into Confidence
    I Suck at Writing: How to Transform Insecurity into Confidence
    I Suck at Writing: How to Transform Insecurity into Confidence
    Ebook111 pages1 hour

    I Suck at Writing: How to Transform Insecurity into Confidence

    By TR Perri

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    About this ebook

    Every writer starts as some kind of babbler, and talent alone is not what separates best selling authors from weekend scribblers. Good writers are good thinkers as well as effective self-leaders, so insecurity and confidence are each a daily choice.

    How are you choosing?

    In addition to insights into what makes productive, confident writers tick, this book includes practice exercises to help develop literary mastery regardless if your goal is to publish.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTR Perri
    Release dateNov 18, 2014
    ISBN9781310866715
    I Suck at Writing: How to Transform Insecurity into Confidence
    Author

    TR Perri

    TR Perri is a member of the Intellectual Academy, and is a graduate of Fairfield University’s MFA in Creative Writing program. He has a passion for studying the idiosyncrasies of culture, and ethics, which will be the content of his forthcoming books. He runs a literary editing company out of rural Connecticut, which specializes in revealing the truths within fiction and the untruths within nonfiction.

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      Book preview

      I Suck at Writing - TR Perri

      I Suck at Writing!

      How to Transform Insecurity into Confidence

      TR Perri

      Copyright 2014 TR Perri

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication many be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

      Cover Design by James, GoOnWrite.com

      Acknowledgement

      Parker:

      I would still be sleeping if I had not met you. As would many.

      Contents

      Preface

      Chapter 1: All the Basics Crammed into One Chapter

      Chapter 2: Be a Behaviorist

      Chapter 3: Some Tough/Annoying/Really Good Questions

      Chapter 4: Good Writing Is More Efficiency Than Imagination

      Conclusion

      Appendix

      Notes

      Further Reading

      About the Author

      ~Preface~

      Social platitudes, monetary and sensual rewards, and familial expectations encourage the false belief that we can sacrifice ourselves for others’ approval and still be fulfilled. But the hard truth is that we will always be insecure if we look toward external mechanisms like these to understand and determine our inward self.

      For writers this is an especially important point, because what we do is so individual and intimate. No one can prescribe for us what project will blow our minds. And the busy, distraction-addicted world we live in is not going to stop being that way just to make our artistic projects any easier. So we need to figure out how to be guerrilla artists: Independent, competent, and adaptable individuals who can simultaneously learn about the hectic outside world without becoming artistically anesthetized by it. This is a challenging mission, but one that I find worthy enough to write at length.

      I understand that not every person who writes has a natural compulsion to write, but that is a moot point. Both natural and strictly learned writers need to hone their work just as hard if they want to be readable. So from here forward whenever I address writers, I am simultaneously addressing natural and strictly learned writers because the principles and habits of good writing supersede genetic inclinations.

      What you will find herein is that I weave into this book my own crooked path to literary self-discovery because I started in the same place so many others have. I believed I was behind the literary eight ball because I could not write an international bestseller on the first try. And I listened to non-writers talk about how amazing the published pros were, and how writing must be so easy for them.

      Rubbish.

      No matter who you are or where you come from you will wear out a lot of desk chairs and empty a lot of pens discovering your content and honing your tools. Writing is like a muscle: the more it is worked the stronger it gets, and the less it is worked the more it atrophies.

      As I mentioned, the developing writer’s biggest obstacle is a lack of confidence. So this book will provide techniques on how to face insecurities and bad habits and resolve them through objective, deliberate techniques. Why? Because these techniques develop confidence to help us endure frustrating obstacles and nasty critics, including the worst obstacle of all: Self-doubt.

      My teacher, Parker—who I will be sporadically citing throughout this book—coached me through my frustrating artistic adolescence, so it would not be right omitting him from a book focused on helping developing writers find their authentic literary self. Writing is a journey, one that is much more bearable when you have the support of others, so my opening premise—which is also a general attitude of mine—is to be positive, and support other writers along their journey.

      ~Chapter 1: All the Basics Crammed into One Chapter~

      Just Write

      There it is. The keystone of every successful writer’s success.

      But published writers are successful, you may say, they must be doing something different!

      No.

      Well, yes.

      But no.

      It is so easy to think Stephen King sits for a few hours a day lackadaisically typing up his newest terrifying novel, but the reality is that he has a voracious appetite for reading, and writes stories regardless of where his last book landed on the charts. So he Just Writes a whole lot.

      I understand if you feel overwhelmed and frustrated as a writer, since writing, even the simplest form, can be incredibly unforgiving and complex. But it is for every writer until you have taken a few licks.

      In my undergrad, I thought things like:

      What should I write about?

      "What should I not write about?"

      Should I bother writing about something others have already written about?

      Do I have a conversation about it first?

      When do I edit?

      Should I even edit, considering the first thought is supposed to be the purest and best?

      If early drafts usually stink, should I not trust my first thought at all?

      How long should I write for?

      How do I format it?

      These are the questions I asked myself for years, switching from inhibitor to inhibitor until I all but straightjacketed my artistry. I only wrote when the mood struck.

      Except that is not writing. That is effectively avoiding writing until no other immediate activity seems more comfortable.

      Do not get me wrong. In the right context the previous questions are valid. However, as a beginner writer, are they reasonable?

      Imagine you have been living under a rock and just today discover the sport of basketball. It looks fun and you want to play.

      So you ask yourself:

      How do I shoot?

      How do I dribble?

      How do I defend without fouling? When is fouling appropriate?

      Can I dunk? When is it effective?

      When do I screen? Not screen?

      Beginning to see how unreasonable the question-peppering is when you are just developing an interest and skill? Just play the game: Pick up the ball, dribble around, get loose, and shoot around. If you liked the experience, do it again tomorrow, and maybe incorporate something else. Keep repeating. I swear, if we all simplified our lives and lived in accordance to the shampoo routine—wash, rinse, repeat—we would be effective at whatever we did.

      Just write. Okay, so if you are not going to ask yourself filtering questions, how do you know what to do?

      You know what to do because the instructions are in the very word: Write. Do not overcomplicate it.

      Put. Words. On. Paper. Without. Expecting. Perfection.

      Writing is often perceived as daunting because the results are right in your face. In spoken word,

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