This week’s rebroadcast collects together some questions about finding confidence and rebuilding it as needed.
As a fledgling screenwriter/English major in college I often feel insecure about my work. How did you get over this as a writer and any advice for the rest of us?
–Jeff
Alas, the flip side of Insecurity tends to be Arrogance. I highly recommend the former over the latter.
Ideally of course, you’d find a middle ground called Confidence. Maybe you’ll be lucky, and that will come early in your career. Until then, here are a few pointers in no particular order of importance:
Remember that you’ll never please everyone with your work.
Seek out the opinions of people you trust and respect.
Don’t make changes based on opinions of those you neither trust nor respect.
Remember that first drafts are never perfect.
Strive to make every sentence as good as it can be, even if it’s just a character walking through a door.
Just because someone is more successful than you, doesn’t mean they’re more talented.
Role models are fine, but remember you’re only seeing their successes and not their failures.
Patience is a virtue, but impatience might make you work harder.
Most good writers weren’t popular growing up.
You will fail and succeed at various times for various reasons you can’t predict. Know this going in, and you’ll roll with it when it happens.
You previously stated: “Most good writers weren’t popular growing up.” While this is true in my case (that I wasn’t popular growing up), do you think also being an unpopular adult (which I am as well) could make a GREAT writer? Or just a whiny, self-obsessed loser who writes nothing but whiny, self-obsessed drivel (which I’m starting to suspect I do)?
–Dave
Just to be clear, I don’t think childhood unpopularity is a golden ticket to success as a screenwriter. I would never give my child a bad haircut, or rub them with cat litter, just in the hope that they’ll win the Oscar when they’re 40. There are many, many unpopular children who grow up to be terrible writers. Maybe, Dave, you’re one of them.
Or maybe not. The simple fact is, one can’t judge a writer’s talent based on how many Friendsters they have. But I would posit that at least in terms of screenwriting, being extremely unpopular is a detriment. Unlike, say, a novelist, the screenwriter has to put on a clean shirt and meet with executives, humoring them when they offer insipid notes and feigning interest in their personal lives. These delicate social skills are hard to pick up if you frighten small children and annoy the elderly.
It’s this social component of screenwriting that explains why some less-talented writers (the proper term is “hacks”) seem to have undeserved success. They’re good at being screenwriters, if not particularly good at screenwriting.
My advice to you, Dave, is contrary to what I’d tell most writers. Don’t write about what you know, since that seems to be limited to whiny self-obsession. Instead, write like the kind of writer you wish you were: bold, courageous, unafraid to piss people off. Think Hemmingway, but with marketable good-looks.
In summary: Pretend you’re confident. Eventually, you will be.
What do you do to regain confidence when your ideas don’t seem to be working or you can’t find an approach?
–Matthew Paul
A very smart writer colleague — and I can’t remember exactly which one, so she’ll remain nameless — takes the time to write a letter to herself when she starts a screenplay, describing how excited she feels to be working on it. Then, when the darkest day hits and she can’t go on, she opens the letter and reads it. That gives her the oomph to finish.
I think that’s remarkable. And completely insane. I mean, who writes letters to themselves? I could never do it. But if that would help you, be my guest.
As I’ve mentioned before, I write out-of-sequence. So if I get to a scene that I just can’t crack, I move on to something else.
The greater problem is when I don’t want to be working on a specific project at all. Since I don’t have a magic letter-to-my-future-self, my fallback is to change my work patterns. I’ll write all night, or at a hotel, or longhand on the beach. I’ll write scenes that could never possibly be in the movie, just to break the characters out of the plot shackles I’ve set for them. (I find loud, shouting arguments — which I never normally write — are great for this purpose.)
A lot of it is just facing down your own self-doubt and attacking it. Easier said than done.
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🗣 Have ideas for future topics (or just want to say hello)? Reach out to Chris via email at inneresting@johnaugust.com, Mastodon @ccsont@mastodon.art, or Threads @ccsont@threads.net