The 4 writing myths holding you back
After years of chatting with some of our thousands of customers and attending local writer events, I've realized there are four common myths that many aspiring authors buy into--and that absolutely hold them back.
Hell, I even believed some of these when starting out (and #2 STILL shows up on the regular like a bad rash).
These myths have been ingrained in many of us since childhood by well-meaning parents, shitty strangers, and society itself. They raise their ugly heads in the form of a mental hydra that hisses, "You should give up" whenever you think about writing.
Hydras are difficult to slay, but not impossible.
Everyone who creates art has to overcome these lies--or at least, learn how to ignore them like putting on noise-cancelling headphones and avoiding eye contact on the subway.
Let's dig into the common myths that hold writers back and the ways you can overcome them.
Myth #1: Writing is a waste of time when I'm not making money from it/I like doing it but it's not important.
Ah yes, society has been telling you this for so long that it has seeped into your subconscious only to come out and mock you like Gollum telling Smeagol nobody likes him.
Do you know what makes humans different from the other animals on this planet? The reason we clambered to dominance over every other life form (for better or worse. Okay, mostly worse)?
It's not opposable thumbs. Chimps have those. It's not tools. Crows use them. It's not even language. Most animals communicate.
It's stories.
It's the one thing we do that no one else does.
Telling stories is how we teach each other lessons to help us survive, whether it's how to fight a lion or how to weather depression. Stories are how we pass knowledge down through the generations (did you know that some fairy tales are 5,000 years old? Those are fantasy stories! Our oldest literature is.)
Stories are how we connect with one another.
They are everything to humans. The time you spend thinking about one is never a waste. It's what makes you and everyone else human.
You might be thinking: That's all well and good but I still have other, more important responsibilities.
You might be right. But the secret we've learned over years of balancing writing and other responsibilities is this: You don't have to lock yourself in a room alone for hours every day to be a writer.
If you can write 250 words a day, you'll have the completed draft of a 60K novel in 8 months. If you can write 500 words, you'll have it in 4 (though editing will take longer).
The other we’ve learned is that it’s okay to do something because you like it. That's reason enough. I doubt many people are telling you that going for a walk in nature is a waste of time or that watching a movie is pointless (and if anyone does, run far away from them).
It's hard to believe it in a world that tells us that the highest achievement is more money, but doing something because it makes you happy is reason enough.
Myth #2: Everything I write is crap so what’s the point?
We know it feels like you're a flaming dumpster full of smaller flaming trash cans when your writing isn't what you want it to be. But every writer feels like that sometimes. Even the pros, even the bestsellers, and award-winners.
More than that, you must write crap before you write gold.
That's true of every skill and every craft. An artist's first paintings are never good. A blacksmith's first sword shatters.
Like any other skill, writing takes practice. Every single word, even if it's not great, makes you a better writer. Not everything you put on the page has to be mithril.
The good news is that you CAN speed up this looong process by learning ways to strengthen your ideas, improve your craft, and organize your thoughts (half of writing is just turning the chaos of thoughts into something structured). You'll still need to practice, but your practice will be more targeted to the right skills you need to develop.
Myth #3: Real writers have natural talent. They don't need help with ideas or craft.
Every single author you've ever read learned from someone else. Every. Single. One.
Tolkien, the father of modern fantasy, had his Norse epics and his friends in the Inklings. N.K. Jemison, author of the first trilogy to win the Hugo Award for all three books, had the Viable Paradise writing workshop, the BRAWLers writing group, the Altered Fluid critique group, AND Launch Pad.
If you're not sure what to do with your ideas or your book, you're in good company – the company of every other writer in history.
The only part that is "natural" is the desire to tell a story. Everything else is learned. After all, no one is born knowing how to write ABC, much less how to write a 60k word novel.
Myth #4: Using a system or structure to write leads to formulaic or derivative work.
Story is structure. The difference between a pile of sticky notes or the scenes in your head is not the words themselves. It's the structure that ties them altogether.
Plot structures, character arcs, and worldbuilding systems have existed for ages because they work. If you break down your favorite stories, whether in books or movies, you'll find that most of them follow a very similar structure. They might even have the same types of characters.
You might not always be consciously aware of the structure of a book, show, or movie while you're enjoying it, but you sure as hell notice when the structure goes wrong. Have you ever watched or read something that laaaagged in the middle? Where characters changed suddenly and without proper build-up (hello, Game of Thrones season 8)? Where the final pay-off is just meh (hello, Game of Thrones season 8 again)?
These are all problems of structure.
But prompts, worksheets, and structure go a bit further than just providing the skeleton for your story.
Your first, second, third ideas are always going to be the things you've seen before, the culture you're most familiar with, the stories you've read and watched. That's just how the human brain works – what you are exposed to the most often is what you think of first (it makes sense from a survival perspective!).
Prompts and structures get you to dig deeper to find new approaches, new aspects, and new ways of creating so your ideas become stronger and more original than they would be otherwise.
That’s why studies show that limitations lead to MORE creative and original ideas than the freedom to do anything at all.
Anyone who says that they don't need a structure to write or that "real" writers don't need help, is either lying or will never finish a novel in their lives.
Stop believing in these myths and you'll be one step closer to becoming the writer you always dreamed of being.
If you need help with structuring your ideas and writing your novel, check out The Essential Bundle for Fantasy and Sci-fi Writers