Can't Write Your Story? Try this!

so the other day I was asked to go to lunch with someone who was a friend of a friend because they had some projects they were working on and they went some advice and when we were having this conversation over lunch I realized that there's there was some really interesting subjects that were kind of common with a lot of people who are writing stories and I kind of tried to boil it down to the of a little bullet point list of the best writing advice that's not technical it's not like grammar or anything but it's just trying to get into the right headspace so that you can actually write and over my career I've gotten a lot of advice on the subject and these are kind of the the main things that I suggested to this person and so let's just start off so this is the best writing advice I could give you as a new writer or maybe intermediate writer the first advice I got a long time ago was don't apologize and I think this is one of the things that really changed my writing and really gave me the confidence to just start putting stuff out there if you have you know a moral or a purpose in your writing or a message or you're doing it for a reason to you know don't apologize if you you know if you have a certain faith and you want to express that in your comics or your writing don't apologize don't sit here and walk around on eggshells and be all concerned that people will will figure out like what you're like when you're not a writer I think you should just jump in there be yourself don't apologize for what you're writing and be true to yourself and what you believe if you believe something write about it if you if you can't write about something you believe in if if you're not able to actually write about something that you believe in and you never tell anybody about it then I really question if you actually believe it you know what I'm saying your if you really believed what you believed and you really thought it was the truth then then don't apologize for it say what you believe right there's plenty there's always going to be people that believe the opposite of you or something different or slightly like you the point is that we communicate we communicate our ideas that's what writing and that's what story is about is communicating ideas I absolutely hate it when people are like no you can't write about certain subjects because it needs to only be entertainment well you know what no I don't agree with that at all because I think storytelling came about because it was trying to convey messages and capture history or explain morals to kids or whatever it is so anyway don't apologize for what you're trying to say say it be bold about it say it period don't apologize okay that was one of the best bits of advice I heard the second one is kind of morbid sounding and it goes like this right as if your parents were dead okay no I I know that sounds morbid but what it means is don't worry you know if you're constantly worrying about what your parents are going to think about your stories because we're all kind of in this situation where you know as we grow up we're trying to please our parents and we we don't do things that because of an idea that we think the parents will or won't like but as soon as you can kind of like start making stuff without worrying about that parental factor I think you'll actually make more stuff that your parents will actually like you know so that's a good frame of mind to try to be in and if you find yourself getting locked up because you're like I don't know if my my mom would approve of this well you know your mom's not writing this story so so just don't let that hold you back from writing what you want to write right right right okay the next piece of advice is if your writing is dependent on someone else like an artist to do concept designs or whatever then you're going about it wrong if you want to be a writer right don't let any artist or any other partner hold you up from writing because you if you really want to be a writer it shouldn't be based on having an artist that's going to sell your book for you right you're a writer you're writing a story especially this goes especially for people who are children's book writers who need to find an artist or comic book writers who need to find an artist just write stories don't worry about the artist right and keep finishing stories make yourself a huge library get that experience of writing don't always blame it on someone else who you don't have any control over start writing the next bit of advice is focus on your primary content in other words I've heard it said this way pull the weeds meaning if you have all these secondary things like oh I need to make a website that introduces these characters and and we need to focus on social media and we need to make some plushies or whatever it is those are all going to be weeds they're all going to get in the way of your primary product which is writing your story if you want to write a story if you want to be a writer that's your primary product write the story don't worry about the website don't worry about the social media those are all weeds that are going to continue to grow up they're always going to take over and they're going to get in your way you're always going to be having to deal with these weeds so focus on one two or three things only and pull all the weeds get rid of all the other garbage that's just going to waste your time fracture your time and make it to where you never get your primary product done okay pull the weeds focus on your primary content and then the next bit of advice that I always tell people when they ask me for career advice is is the simple little strategy that I've used in my life and it is find out what you love to do so that you can put in the time to master the skill so that you can actually finish something because only when you have mastered the skill and finish something through the love of doing it will you actually finish it and doors will start opening for you if you don't really love something you're not gonna put in the time to master it and you're not going to ever finish something that's any good so you got to love it first so that you actually put in that time that seems like a long time to other people but since you love it it's not gonna seem like that much of time to you because you love doing it right you know you the snowboarder never complains because they're snowboarding too much oh I go to snowboard some more you know no they love it they go out there and they do it all day long because they love it you know what I'm saying so find the thing that you love to do so that you could put in the time so you can finish something and doors will open the thing is you never know what doors will open up but doors do open up when you finish things okay and then finally the last bit of advice that I gave is that it's a numbers game I've been told this before in different fields of art and it's always a numbers game you have to just set yourself up so that you can keep finishing projects keep finishing stories keep writing stories because it's a numbers game not your first story will your first story is not gonna be the one that goes out there your first story isn't gonna be the one that sells a million copies and suddenly you're famous if you've never written a story before you know what I'm saying I mean I'm sorry it just doesn't happen even the people who their first novel appears to be that they're the the best-selling one they've written a lot of stories before to get to that point you don't just sit down and start writing I mean you're brilliant you have to write a bunch and you start learning and it's a numbers game right when you're pitching properties to two networks and studios it's the numbers game you have to just keep pitching ideas and eventually one will sell if you're making comic books you have to just keep making them eventually one might be the one that sells a whole bunch of coffees for writing children's books and making children's books you have to just keep making them eventually one will be the one that blows up but you can never guarantee it but it's not going to happen by you just doing one perfect one you have to actually you have to look at this as a long game okay so keep writing keep making content set set it up so that you don't get burned out after that first one if you put all your eggs in one basket and get burnout and quit then you've failed right so make sure you can keep writing and keep telling stories and keep doing this because it is a numbers game alright so anyway that was the advice those those were the core elements of the advice that I gave my friend at lunch the other day and I just figured hey this might be a good thing that other people want to hear so with all that said thanks for listening and by the way I'm having a big sale this November for all my comics I'm having some big discounts so head on over to CTC Storenvy or the links will be below and make sure to grab some books from me while you can at a discount all right guys I'm Jason Brubaker I have worked for 20 years professionally in Hollywood and storyboards film animation and now I do graphic novels for a living I'm a completely self-taught artist and I want to show you a technique that I created to teach myself how to draw I've developed this book called cognitive drawing daily worksheets that you can use and once you learn this method you can imitate any style you want with or without my workbook check out cognitive drawing I'll have it in the links below

Channel: Jason Brubaker

Views: 11,837

Keywords: writing advice, don't apologize, focus on primary content, pull the weeds, love what you do, finish something, numbers game, self publisher, artist, writer, comics, graphic novels, indie, art, drawing, photoshop, making comics, make comics, illustration, jason brubaker, cognitive drawing, writing

Id: FAeF7001Idw

Length: 10min 30sec (630 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 19 2018