Consistency Trumps Talent Every Time

We've all heard the story of the tortoise and the hare. The two of them set up to race one day, and the hare bounds off, taking an early lead. The hare decides there's no rush, and pisses about, having a snack, taking a nap, etc. When all is said and done, even if the hare had all the natural gifts in the world, he didn't apply them properly to the task at-hand. Thus the tortoise, who was here to win the damn race, crossed the finish line first.

This is something you see a lot of when it comes to writing. Because there are plenty of people out there who have a lot of talent... but the person who shows up and writes every day is going to be the one who finishes their projects, and crosses that goal line. Not just once, but over, and over, and over again.

You'll get there... eventually...

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more!

Discipline, Not Passion, Is What Lays Your Foundation

When people think about art, they usually focus on the thrill of creation, and the happy brain chemicals that flow through you when you get do it. Whether it's drawing, sculpting, or writing, the rush of translating something from your mind and onto a page is the part that most folks tend to focus on.

However... that is only a tiny fraction of what actually goes into making art as a craft (to say nothing of doing it as a profession). Because natural ability and the joy of movement and execution is a single facet of a complicated gem. There's also studying other creators, attempting to learn new skills and master new tools, but at the core of it all there is the one thing that really makes a difference... practice.

To paraphrase Bruce Lee, you don't need to fear someone who has tried a thousand different kicks 1 time each. But that fighter who has perfected a single kick, throwing it a thousand times or more? They will be able to execute that maneuver with power, grace, and a precision you do not want to be on the receiving end of. 

Lock in. Get it done.

Think of any physically demanding job or task out there, and you probably imagine them doing drills, and going through constant training to stay on top of their game. From soldiers and SWAT teams, to firefighters, athletes, dancers, and others, the idea is that if you want to be at the top of your game then you have to put in the hours to perfect your skills. You can't just pick up a fencing rapier, mess around with it for a few hours, and become a sword master; you need thousands of hours to familiarize yourself with the weight of the sword, the strategies of attack and defense, and so on, and so forth. The same is true with wielding a story and making sure that you can twist it, turn it, and execute it as tightly as possible.

Just as important as the amount of practice you put in, though, is the fact that you need to make sure you don't lose your instincts for it because you let yourself get rusty.

Take a moment and think back to when school was in session during the Fall. You've had 3 months off, and you haven't cracked a textbook, done a math problem, or put together a science experiment. Now you're back in school, and your teachers have to spend the first few weeks of school priming your brain pump and reminding you of all the things you learned last year that you've forgotten. And if you haven't been in school for years, instead of months? Well, you might need entire refresher courses to get your brain back in gear, and performing where it was. The same is true of writing... if you have weeks, months, or even years in between your bouts of work, you're going to find yourself trying to make up progress you lost. Like if you went to the gym, got in shape, and then stopped showing up for the holidays... you're going to notice some of your gains are gone, and you aren't as tight as you were before cookie season.

I thought holiday calories didn't count...

Drive is important. Talent is important. But discipline and dedication are going to be your bread and butter when it comes to writing, because they are the tortoise who puts one foot in front of the other. Because when you practice writing every day, no matter how you feel, whether it's rain or shine, then that is the same as showing up to drill even on your off days. And it's why you're going to be that much faster, that much smoother, and that much more natural than someone who just practices when they feel like it, or when they're in a good mood, or when they don't have anything else to do.

You get out what you put in when it comes to your work. And there's going to be frustrations and annoyances, stumbling blocks and hurdles... but if you want to be able to create, you have to keep coming back every day, stretching, and trying to be just a little bit better than you were yesterday.

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If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

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Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel, as well as my Rumble channel listed above!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

Six Word Stories, Two Sentence Tales, and More Short Form Fiction

There are all kinds of writing exercises we do to practice our prose, spin up fresh ideas, and to create compelling characters. However, there are two fun little fictional exercises I would recommend more of us do because it helps is focus on brevity, and substance, which can be a problem for so many of us.

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more!

For Sale, Baby Shoes, Never Worn

According to popular mythology, the six-word short story was created on a bet by Ernest Hemingway with a bunch of other writers over lunch. He said he could write a full plot in as little as six words, to which he penned For sale, baby shoes, never worn. on a napkin. While this account is much more mythology than fact, according to Open Culture, the exercise is still one that's worth pursuing. Because while it might seem simple on the surface, being able to actually tell a complete story in such a small number of words is extremely hard to do. Once you get used to doing it, though, it can tighten up a lot of your writing, and help you decide what flourishes are a necessity of the story, and which ones are just indulgent accessories that you should probably trim off.

There's a similar exercise for character creation in the World of Darkness tabletop roleplaying game as well. Because while you have a rather expansive sheet that details all the aspects of your character from their name, age, height, and weight, to what physical attributes they possess, to what skills they have, to what magic powers they do or don't wield, but there is a section near the top for a 3-4 word character description. Being able to break your character concept down to something as simple as, "vampire road captain," or, "werewolf computer hacker," may sound like a simple exercise, but it's tougher than people seem to think. However, as I've seen said on different parts of the Internet, if you can't explain something simply and concisely to someone else, then it's possible you don't actually understand it yourself.

In addition to these shorter forms of storytelling, there's one more that I would recommend folks try... the two-sentence tale. While most commonly used to write horror stories, like the ones I've linked in this article so far, you can technically use it to write any genre of story you desire... it just so happens that horror is the genre folks traditionally associate with the format. If you're looking for solid examples of this kind of story, I'd recommend listening to any of the audio dramas I've linked in this post, or checking out the print versions on Vocal:

- 50 Two-Sentence Horror Stories

- 50 Two-Sentence Horror Stories, Warhammer 40K Edition

- 50 Two-Sentence Horror Stories, SCP Edition

- 50 Two-Sentence Horror Stories, Cthulhu Mythos Edition

While you can't make a huge living off of these stories individually (I've only gotten a modicum of traffic to these examples over the years, and it's barely been enough for some Taco Bell when all is said and done), I still recommend the exercise because it teaches you to really condense your thoughts, and to focus on bringing things across as quickly and concisely as possible!

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

- The A.L.I.C.E. Files (an ongoing audio drama channel on YouTube)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel, as well as my Rumble channel listed above!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

You're Never Going To Get Better as a Writer If You Never Start

Going to the gym intimidates a lot of people. They know that establishing a routine is important to getting in shape, and they want to do it, but all they can think about is how everyone must be judging them. Whether it's because they're lifting tiny weights, or their stamina is too low, or they clearly don't know what they're doing, the idea of being new where other people can see them paralyzes them with indecision. When that happens, a lot of folks prefer to just stay home, and not take the risk.

One more chapter... come on...

The same thing happens to a lot of writers out there. And, unfortunately, that inability to start is what stops you from getting any better.

There's Only One Way To Get Better

The only way to get better at something is to do it, and the same is true for writing. I talked about this way back when in If You Want Your Art To Improve, You Need To Invest In It, but it's one of the hardest steps for a lot of people to take.

Because no matter how naturally talented you are, and no matter how many years you've been reading books, or how much advice you've read on the subject, chances are good that your early efforts are not going to win you any prizes. In fact, no beating around the bush, they're probably going to suck. Just like how your form is going to be terrible your first time lifting weights, your stamina is going to be lackluster on your first long run, and your early paintings are probably going to be awful.

But if you want to be Bob Ross, Stephen King, etc., then you've got to go through that learning period.

It was a lie, there are mistakes. A shit load of them.

I'm not saying this is an easy thing to do. Far from it, I'd argue that buckling down to become a writer takes grit, determination, and the willingness to be bad. But if you don't have that willingness then you're never going to get any better.

So if you're worried about writing a story with plot holes you could put a fist through, a main character with glaring flaws, a timeline that doesn't make sense, or a hackneyed plot, you have my permission to do it. Right now. I release you from the responsibility of the flawless, because perfect is the enemy of done.

Take Your Ego Out of The Equation

One of the biggest problems for creators of all sorts of that we get our egos caught up in our work. We treat it like an extension of ourselves, and when criticism hits, it splashes back onto us. Sadly, there's no getting around this. They say that the master has failed more times than the student has even attempted, but the thing is that you don't see those failed attempts when you're looking up to a creator. You see the successes they put on display, but not the mountains of bad prose, awful poetry, cringe-worthy plot devices, and the armies of beheaded characters who did not serve a role within the story.

What he said.

You need to be able to hold your work at arm's length and see it for what it is. You should still love it, and enjoy it, but you also need to learn to recognize its flaws, and to see where things went wrong. That's part of the creative process, and while it might hurt to admit our mistakes, it's the only way we get better. And as I said in Want To Be A Better Writer? Make Lots of Pots, the experience of completing a project is far more useful than taking years and years to make one, perfect thing. Practice makes permanent, and it's only by writing that you build up the muscles and the mental reflexes to spin ideas out of the ether, and to see problems at a glance.

Just like there's no way to get 6-pack abs while sitting on the couch eating potato chips, there's also no way to become the best writer you can be if you never sit down and write. So go do that... now. Don't worry about not being bad, like I said, you've got a permission slip.

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my short story collection The Rejects!

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

If You Want Your Art To Improve, You Need To Invest In It

How many times have you wished you were better at something? A better writer, a better painter, a better sketch artist, whatever your jam happens to be? If you're like most folks with a creative streak, I'm sure it's a constant wish. You know that you can't just snap your fingers and get more skilled, but who has the time to write? Or draw? We all have lives we're living, and there just isn't always room for our art.

Real talk, here. If you want to improve as a creator, then you're going to need to make room for it. Because if you aren't willing to invest in your art, then you're never going to get any better at it.

Lessons From The Great George Carlin

May he never be forgotten.

If you've paid even the slightest attention to comedy, then you know who George Carlin is. Considered a master of the craft, his cutting insights and caustic wit made him a legend among audiences, and an idol among comedians. What most people forget, though, is that when he started off George wasn't anything special. He was a guy who did goofy voices, had good timing, and was generally amusing. So how did the guy who was sort of funny end up becoming a mythical pop culture figure?

Bad financial decisions, and a lot of pressure, since you ask.

You see, back around the end of the 70s, George was starting to get burned out on comedy. He'd had a good run, and he was thinking about getting into movies instead. It wasn't an uncommon career path, and he figured that a change would do him good, creatively and professionally. However, young George had made some mistakes in spending too much money, and now his future self owed the IRS quite a tidy sum of money in back taxes. With all of the other debts he'd incurred, staying in comedy was just a more reliable way to dig out of the hole.

The results speak for themselves.

As Carlin said himself in later interviews, being forced to stick with comedy likely saved his career. Because not writing new and better jokes wasn't an option. Also, since he had to constantly tour and constantly create in order to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors, he got really damn good at his craft. So much so that most people are shocked to hear that he ever considered hanging it up in the first place.

No One Else Is Going To Put The Gun To Your Head

I said this before in Want To Be A Better Writer? Make A Lot of Pots!, but it bears repeating. If you want to get good at something, then you have to put in the hours and develop your skills. Not only that, but you need to keep that edge honed, because it will go dull if you don't use it.

And if you want to get that razor edge, then you need to spend the time with a whetsone, some oil, and finally a strop to get yourself there. Wishing and sighing ain't gonna do it for you.

I'd start turning, if I were you.

If you want to get better, then you have to prioritize your art. You need to let people in your life know that it's important, and you need to practice every day. Not just when inspiration strikes you, or when you feel like it. Some days you spend twenty minutes with a notebook, others a few hours with your laptop. Which tools you use, and how long you spend may vary; the point is you're doing it. Work on a schedule. Sometimes you won't like the work you do. Sometimes it will be sub par, or just junk that you delete the next day. Sometimes you'll get half of a good story out, and you'll have to fix it in editorial. That's great. All of that is great.

Because the only way you're going to improve is by doing it. And the only way you're going to do it is if you decide to do it. Because not all of us have the luxurious misfortune of an outside entity pointing a gun at our heads and screaming, "Write something good, or else!"

You need to look in the mirror, and do it to yourself.

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing installment. Hopefully it helped some folks out there! For more work by yours truly, check out my Vocal archive as well as My Amazon Author Page where you'll find books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. You can even catch my new books, RPG supplements, and other articles on my Pinterest now! Lastly, if you want to help support me, please consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or going to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. Every little bit helps!