Friday, February 27, 2009

Yes, I Can (Dammit)

Are you a confident or delusional writer?

I was thinking about a friend-of-a-friend the other day; he is a successful entrepreneur and author. Very spiritual and centered (he's a Sikh, which helps) but in a stange balance, is full of himself. But it works for him, and he is a very likable, approachable person...albeit very driven, and very likely to bring himself and/or his business up in conversation. But, to the point of the above link: that's kind of what it takes to be a working writer, isn't it? The ability to be confident when the odds are pretty much stacked against you? I know personally that everything I write feels risky (i.e., how weird is it to sit around and make up other peoples lives, and to write in a flourished way that I don't speak aloud?), but if I lose confidence in what I'm doing, even for a minute, I'll give up and not try.
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Good week of writing...I've been averaging close to 1k every day this week, and over 2k last night; I think I passed 10.5k on Aquarium last night, which made me happy-dance on the way to bed. I'd love to crack 15k this weekend...there are some parts coming up that I really want to see.
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I was never a fan of the comic, but I am kind of excited to see Watchmen when it comes out next week. I think the flaws and humanity of superheroes (a la Spiderman, Wolverine) are really some of the best parts of the story.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

All of my words are written in stone, what is he talking about? :P

Anonymous said...

I think it's healthy to take risks. Otherwise, if you're always playing it safe, you become complacement and, well, boring.

Joe's post was really good; what I wonder is, what about those writers that are confidently delusional, or those that are delusionally confident?

Cate Gardner said...

According to JA's system I'm confident, but then maybe I'm confident because I'm delusional. ;D

Acorrding to my system, I'm not confident at all. Or I'm confident for five minutes, then I go back into a manuscript and start all over again, confident for another five minutes, and repeat.

K.C. Shaw said...

Your word counts are awesome!

wait, Watchmen comes out next week? I thought it was this summer! Cool, something to look forward to (although I never did read the comic--I just want to see a fun movie).

Fox Lee said...

Spiderman and Nightcrawler are my favorites : )

Unknown said...

I'm excited to see Watchmen, but I rarely get the chance to see a movie until it comes out on DVD.

Jeremy D Brooks said...

Mercedes: me too...I don't understand the problem with these damn stingy publishers and their "guidelines"...just print me, dammit.

Robert: agreed...that's how stuff gets done.

Cate: I think we're all a bit delusional...otherwise we wouldn't be trying to make our livings in this field!

KC: yeah, I just realized that, too...and now I'm all excited in a nerdy kind of way.

Nat: I loved Spiderman...I didn't really understand it when I was little, but when I saw the movies it reminded me how conflicted he was.

Jeremy: same here, although our oldest just got to the point where she can watch her sister for a couple of hours while we sneak out for an R movie. It's so-o-o-o nice...words almost can't describe.