Feeling inadequate? Like you’re a fake? A person only pretending to be a writer who’s about to be found out?
Take heart, bunky. Not only are you not alone in your misery, you don’t even have to suffer this way at all.
Writing a novel is a challenging process and positive reinforcement is gaspingly hard to come by. Accordingly, it is hard to avoid imposter syndrome: the feeling that you are a fraud and that your lack of skills will be “discovered” at any moment.
A short lesson in productivity and the attitude you need to, you know, be productive. This TVWriter™ minion got a lot out of this…and the great image that accompanies it:
A large source of my creative procrastination comes from this notion that my idea “just isn’t ready yet,” like it’s fruit ripening on a tree. But you know what? That’s bullshit.
I do creative writing in my free time—short stories, screenplays, TV pilots, poems, songs—but honestly, most of that writing is actually just me jotting down ideas of things I want to write in the future, “when I have time.” I tell myself that those ideas still need to get “fleshed out,” that they’re “percolating,” but really I’m hoping that I’ll have some sort of epiphany that will make the hard work easier.
Some visitors to TVWriter™ may be surprised to hear that many artists in all disciplines don’t make a whole lotta money. Which means they – okay, let’s be honest – we sometimes – oops – often need help finding creative space or just plain making ends meet. Here are some tips getting yourself a very special kind of help:
Last August, I made a brief visit to paradise. I woke up early and took a quick walk down a flower-lined path and over a river to breakfast. Once caffeinated, I headed to my studio, a cozy room with a bookshelf, desk, and armchair for reading, with a window overlooking that river, whose burbling underscored several hours of writing. I went to lunch at 12, then spent some time lounging in an Adirondack chair in the sun, reading. After that, maybe I went for a hike, or to a yoga class, or back to my studio. Then dinner, followed by more writing, then a reading or artist lecture, then out for some drinks in town.
What’s that? You’ve heard about H’wood’s, erm, “ageism problem?” So although at 40+ you’re feeling at the top of your intellectual writing game, you’re worried that you might not stand a chance. Here’s some genuinely helpful advice:
Yes, this is a plug for Carole Kirschner’s new book, Hollywood Game Plan. But we’re thinking it’s worth reading. And maybe even buying too – even if you’re younger. Honest!
CONNECT WITH CAROLE KIRSCHNER
Yes, it’s true, we have a little something extra today…an article about Grant Snider, as opposed to our most recent presentation of his brilliant work, just a little earlier this morning. So glad we found this one:
GRANT SNIDER’S first book, The Shape of Ideas: An Illustrated Exploration of Creativity, a compilation of cartoons from his website Incidental Comics, has just been published by Abrams ComicArts. “What do ideas look like? Where do they come from?” asks the jacket copy. Surprisingly, Snider’s beautifully composed cartoons have cogent answers to those questions — or if they don’t, he’s at least an urgent asker. He’s created something unique: a synthesis of comics, philosophy, and poetry: a thoughtful new way of packaging eternal ideas in cartoon boxes.
Snider grew up in Derby, Kansas, outside of Wichita, reading newspaper comics like Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side and drawing with his twin brother Gavin. “Our parents gave us an easel,” Gavin remembers. “Grant would have one side and I’d have the other. We’d tear a big roll of paper and stick it on there and get markers and create these imaginary worlds.” They drew pirates, asteroids, aliens, and Bigfoot, and used the drawings to tell stories to each other.