3 Things You Need to Succeed
I’ve received many questions about the business end of writing. To answer I’d like to start with a high-level overview of what you will need to make it in any creative business endeavor and then drill down in later posts about Agents, Editors, and Proposals.
You will need ANY TWO of the following THREE things to succeed.
Talent: You have a gift with words. Your prose is flawless, and your characters spring fully formed from your forebrain.
Drive: You get you at 4 AM to bang out a few revisions. Three hours later you’ve written an entire chapter.
Luck: Mega Hollywood agents accidentally call you. You’re mother is friends with major media CEOs. You inherit a million bucks letting you quit your day job!
Let’s examine these in order of least-to-most importance.
Talent is least important. You can learn how to write. I did (at least what passes for modern popular writing). Don’t get me wrong, true talent is a gift to be cherished. Sometimes, however, great talents refuse to change a word of their prose to appease editors or adapt to find a new (larger) audience. By and large people with only talent fade from the publishing world.
Drive. You can guess how I feel about this. There are impossible deadlines, endless rejections, and countless rewrites. And then you get up the next day and do it all over again for the pure joy of it. Without Drive your career will slow to a crawl, choke, and fall into a coma.
Luck. The single most important thing. There are innumerable barriers beyond your control to getting published. Once published these obstacles continue as you climb from first-time writer, to mid-list author, to “hey I can actually make a living at this!” ...and beyond. Luck opens holes in publisher's schedules, aligns cosmic factors so the NYTIMES reviews your novel, and keeps the editor who loves your work gainfully employed.
In the end, however, you can only control ONE of the three things. Talent--you’re born with it. Luck? At the whim of the stochastic and often-cruel gods. That leaves Drive...and that ALL up to you.
You will need ANY TWO of the following THREE things to succeed.
Talent: You have a gift with words. Your prose is flawless, and your characters spring fully formed from your forebrain.
Drive: You get you at 4 AM to bang out a few revisions. Three hours later you’ve written an entire chapter.
Luck: Mega Hollywood agents accidentally call you. You’re mother is friends with major media CEOs. You inherit a million bucks letting you quit your day job!
Let’s examine these in order of least-to-most importance.
Talent is least important. You can learn how to write. I did (at least what passes for modern popular writing). Don’t get me wrong, true talent is a gift to be cherished. Sometimes, however, great talents refuse to change a word of their prose to appease editors or adapt to find a new (larger) audience. By and large people with only talent fade from the publishing world.
Drive. You can guess how I feel about this. There are impossible deadlines, endless rejections, and countless rewrites. And then you get up the next day and do it all over again for the pure joy of it. Without Drive your career will slow to a crawl, choke, and fall into a coma.
Luck. The single most important thing. There are innumerable barriers beyond your control to getting published. Once published these obstacles continue as you climb from first-time writer, to mid-list author, to “hey I can actually make a living at this!” ...and beyond. Luck opens holes in publisher's schedules, aligns cosmic factors so the NYTIMES reviews your novel, and keeps the editor who loves your work gainfully employed.
In the end, however, you can only control ONE of the three things. Talent--you’re born with it. Luck? At the whim of the stochastic and often-cruel gods. That leaves Drive...and that ALL up to you.
posted by Eric Nylund at 6:47 AM
21 Comments:
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Well...that's a downer, but I agree. Though i wouldn't call it luck...its something. And that's why the business is so damn hard.
When I was in high school and all my teachers and family members that were collegiate types were telling me to pursue an English degree, my parents were telling me to attach my arse to a chair and write. If I wanted to go to college, fine, but they wouldn't waste their money on something that I could and had learned on my own. They suggested business, but said they'd rather pay for supplies and provide me a place to live and write. I was lucky enough to find a husband to continue the trend.
Two out of three...hmm...I need to look up what to sacrifice to who for the third one.
I totally agree. Of course it helps to be talented and eventually this will be a necessity, but more than anything else in any business: "It's not what you do but who you know that elevates you to the top". Luck has a lot to do with this, but so does being assertive or having an agent or any other number of helpful resources you can utilize to show off your talents.
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wax, just for your info, you can always delete what you wrote originally and rewrite it. There's no edit feature for us, but if you want to change it, that may be the best way.
And nikoda, i can guarantee that it isn't worth the stress and time to get all three. Really, unless you enjoy stuff like that, don't bother. Ugh, i can feel my head hurt from just thinking about it.
Thanks man, I'm not sure how to do it though. I'm not seeing a delete. All well, I should hang more often for my rants anyways.
It's all good though, Ashley is Hawt. I've been seeing a resurrection of Indy films doing fairly well. I just have some issues with Hollywood and a favorite Sci-Fi author of mine. The rest is -blam.
I'll tell you that I wrote like a madman before going to sleep this morning. Ha,ha
just in case, that was in no way directed toward Mr. Nylund.
-Wax
No worries, Wax. All grist for the grinder.
Re: Luck. So you can’t change your luck, but you can alter your chances for success...by not giving up. Think of it as a craps games. You place your bet (in our case, you’re betting time, effort, hopes and dreams) and you roll your dice (send it out to agents, editors, the world at large) and you either come up golden or you lose.
Nine out of ten people give up after one throw of the dice! The professional gambler/writer will place another bet (hopefully learning something from that first round and adjust his/her strategy) and roll again.
I’ve had HUGE losing streaks (years long)—some of my best ideas are buried in rejected novel proposals. It hurts, man, really hurts.
Rather than needing only two of those, I'd say that you need all three - to varying degrees. If you've got undeniable talent, luck doesn't need to be as prominent. Lots of drive makes up for not having tons of talent, and even makes up for luck in some degree. And luck can make up for both of them. Heck, some of my least favorite authors got published simply because they had luck.
That said, I'm not sure which I have. Drive... yes, to a certain degree. I've gained lots of drive from my past experience. Talent... well, I'm not the one to gauge that. And luck? I think I'll let my drive and my talent determine my luck. If I've got enough of either, I'm bound to get lucky sometime. Or not, but I'll be optimistic.
As always, thanks!
As a side note, I've found that after you post new blogs, I seem to be able to take what you've said and turn it into inspiration for my writing. Odd. And an update with how far you've brought me: 1/20th done with the book. Now that I look at it in a fraction, not so significant... Ah, well. It'll pick up sometime.
These don't have much to do with your most recent post, but I figured an answer could be rewarding to those who read you blog.
Have you noticed that a lot of your novel's carry that "angel on their shoulder" character for insight?
Halo's was Cortana to the Master Chief, Cowboy Matt Carlson in Dry Water, all the different soul's in Game of Universe, and a little bit of help from others through the cyber world in the Signal series.
Were these thing that got you the deal to write Halo? Or at least affirmed for you that you knew you could write those books? Or is it just the luck of the draw that you've already written stuff like in the past that let you deliver such an excellent story in the Halo series.
If you look at the difference between your books and The Flood,(not to pick on Dietz at all, it's hard turnng a mission based first-person shooter into a novel without obscuring the continuity of an already told story) it's easy to notice the relationship between cortana and john is more robotic then the personal elements you intertwined in reach and first strike.
Which makes me ask this question as well, how did you come on to sign for the halo novels? Was their competition among other writers for the slot? We need one of those E! True Hollywood takes on this.
-Matt
Yuch, E!...we'll get too much information on what isn't important.
I do agree with you though, Eric, on how most people give up on their first try. Which goes back to one of your previous entries about showing your work to people. That's one of the biggest downers to any prospective writer, to write something, immediately show it off and be told it wasn't up to par with what they expected.
I got, well, i was fortunate in this because i did this (not knowing the possible consequences) and it ended up making me write more. So there's a risk in it, while the slow and secretive way is definately safer. However, i find that i write the best when i can feed off of the people reading my stuff (no, not figuratively...). If i know someone will be reading what I wrote, then i'm going to put in extra effort. If its five, ten, or however many people, then i'm going to work extra hard.
Eh, i think i got carried away there.
DZ-- yes, many of my main characters have "sidekicks" or "foils." It's been a very deliberate thing in my stories to help illustrate the main character via the thoughts/actions/commentaries of these foils. In the case of Germain in A GAME OF UNIVERSE this is taken to an extreme as the novel becomes a character study illuminated by the light of his adventure but shone through the prism of all his multiple unwilling “sidekick” personas. For my next novel the main characters are twins, brother and sister—each other foils.
Did this writing technique help me get the HALO writing gig? Nope. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time – but that’s a story for another post...
RE: John and Cortana – that relationship gets a little more complicated as Cortana was created from Dr. Halsey’s brain pattern and she is, in many ways, a mother figure to the Spartans. Although Cortana has obviously grown far from that original base pattern, I suspect there are still lingering maternal feelings for John. Probably way too much analysis here.
--E
So, as far as drive goes, what keeps you going? Is it simply putting food on the table, or, as you said, the pure joy of writing and/or having a book published?
It's probably a bit simpler for a writing-for-fun person like myself (anything I write is only shared with some friends and relatives, so there are no deadlines or anything), so I just do it for fun. Plus there's a certain feeling when you finish up a story. Can't get enough of that.
David,
Lots of jobs will put food on the table...and more of it!
To be driven ultimately you have to love something about writing or you're going to be miserable. Many very good writers I know loved being published authors, but hated the hard work of writing. They stopped, and rightfully so, I think.
One other thing that keeps me driven are my cats. They anticipate me getting up at 4-5AM every morning and expect to be fed. They never let me sleep in!
--Eric
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Proves that cats are just pure evil. I mean, look at them! They start out cute and cuddly and end up fat and ugly. I'd know, i've got one of my own...
That's great though to be able to do what you love. Sadly, most people don't, and although i'm currently stuck at school still, I wish there was more time to do the things that I really enjoy. Still, them parents have some say!
"And the greatest of these is..." Drive, perseverance, cowboying up.
Kalroy
So, I think I have the talent, I have to work on the drive, now I just have to get some luck...
"In the end, however, you can only control ONE of the three things. Talent--you’re born with it. Luck? At the whim of the stochastic and often-cruel gods. That leaves Drive...and that ALL up to you."
I completely agree with that statement. Though i have to disagree with the fact that Luck is more important than talent. Talent can CAUSE luck, i think.
I posted one of my stories on FanFiction.net . Someone there told me to post it on HaloWars Heaven. Someone there told me to post it on Halo Wars Forum. This eventually lead me all over the internet, posting my story on dozens of websites. Recently, i was told to post it on Bungie.net forums, where a Bungie moderator (!!!) told me i had "Real Talent".
This may not be luck, but i consider it quite close. Therefore, skill can LEAD to Luck.
Though i fully agree that Drive is the most important.
I have a tingling question in my mind: how can I, or what are several ways to have my motivation(drive) burning?
Thing is, music and art are my truest inspirational sources, but sometimes I get stuck listening to too much music and not enough outlining or writing. Another drive, a more subconscious drive, is the desire to show the story I have, or the desire to extend a message. However, after weeks of outlining, drawing, planning, creating, and writing about 5 chapters, my motivation dies. It all ends up being another stack of papers in my room. :(
Any suggestions as to how I may keep my drive going?
I think that what you said about learning to write is interesting because...well, I guess I think that you can only be taught certain ways. I think that you can learn to write by reading, not necessarily about writing, but just by reading and figuring out what works and what doesn't work. I've always thought that an English degree is sort of a waste of time because if you just sit in a classroom and are just instructed as to what works and what doesn't you aren't going to learn what really works because more than often the professors are just literary analysts, not actual writers (at least in my area). If I can't get into film school I'm just gonna go to a local college and go for an English degree, not for the instruction in what makes literature great, but more for the whole collegiate experience since I don't think that writing can be taught academically, you just pick it up naturally.
Does that make sense? It seems to sprawl sort of...
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