Unlock Your Creative Potential: The Importance of Writing in Any Creative Pursuit
Look, don’t take this the wrong way, but shut the fuck up, stop what you’re doing, and just write.
Don’t scroll Twitter. Don’t watch “just one more episode.” Don’t ask ChatGPT to give you ideas or outline your story.
Sit down. Put on some headphones.
Just. Write.
Because if you’re creative in any way, storytelling will always be the foundation of your craft. A video ... tells a story. A piece of music ... tells a story.
Photography tells a story.
Sculpture, painting, books, dance, acting ... whatever your “thing” is, when you peel back all the aromatic layers, chances are storytelling is at its core.
So stop what you’re doing and write.
Writing -- and storytelling -- is the one skill that will pay off no matter what you do in your creative life. It pays off no matter where you go, creatively or professionally.
To state the obvious: it’s easy to see the critical value of writing during a writers’ strike. Which is wild to think about -- just how broken is this system that a strike is happening in the first place? It doesn’t matter what the Hollywood production is because at the heart of it is always a script. Someone (or someones) had an idea and put in the work to shape that idea. Good, bad, or mediocre, writing is the heartbeat of Hollywood.
Because writing is the heartbeat of storytelling.
So stop what you’re doing and just ... fucking ... write.
Because to get good at writing -- which is to say, to get good at whatever your creative craft might be -- you need to put in the work. And while writing is one of the hardest things a person can endeavor to do, it is also the easiest, simplest, most fundamental form of creative expression.
Right? Write.
And keep writing.
A popular theory says it takes at least 10,000 hours to master something. I don’t know what that would be in word count, but if I were to make an educated guestimate, taking into consideration the average word count of novels, screenplays, short stories, and blog posts, and calculating the algorithmic mean, I’d say it’s somewhere in the ballpark of a bazillion words.
So, you know, get at it.
Write your stories.
Then write more stories.
Become a master storyteller.
It’s as easy as it is difficult: every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.
In screenwriting: act one, act two, act three.
In comedy: setup, bridge, punchline.
Everything else -- character, conflict, plot, whatever -- is draped over those three waypoints.
Beginning. Middle. End.
Here’s my simple formula:
Attention-grabbing hook. This is very short and designed to pique interest.
The beginning. Establish the premise of your story.
The middle. Conflict. Journey. The meat on the bones.
The end. A satisfying conclusion. The cherry on top. Make sure you pay off that attention-grabbing hook!
It’s that simple.
And yes, it is also that hard.
Because the only way you can get good at writing is to put in the time and do the work.
Just write.
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