Dear Sofia

A kind reader at BlueSky wrote to me this morning with a question: could I provide her with advice to help her 17-year-old daughter, Sofia, who is contemplating a career as a writer?

After Patti chastened me for grumbling about my imposter syndrome, I asked Sofia's mom specifically what she wanted to know. She set me three questions, all very flattering, so I decided to answer them here as it's impossible to post a PDF at Bluesky, easier to post a link, and flattery will get you everywhere.

Dear Sofia,

Your mom sent me a message on BlueSky today, asking if I had any advice I could give you to help you on your path toward becoming a writer. Here's your mom's very kind first question:

As a successful writer, what's the most exciting part about writing for you, Joe - is it creating new worlds, developing characters, or something else entirely?

My first response is that success is relative. While it is true I've been writing for a living for some years now (my first professional journalism assignment was ten years before you were born) I've had many occupations. I've worked in various parts of the film industry since I was 19. Everyone's journey is unique. My advice to you would be to go to college if you can, have fun, live life, and 'Follow your Bliss' (mantra from the philosopher of storytelling, Joseph Campbell). I love Stephen King's reply to the snooty lady who asked him why does he write all that horror stuff; he replied, "Why do you think that I have a choice?"

I've always been drawn to writing. If you feel the same, you will know already if it is for you. I wrote my first 'novel' when I was seven or eight years old, 30 pencil-written pages of a sci-fi-horror nonsense and drawings that filled a school exercise book.

When I was your age, one thing I learned that I found helpful was to keep notebooks. Write everything down, keep clippings, pictures, anything that inspires you. Personally, stories that stick with me tend to grow over a very long time. I'm writing one now that I first sketched out probably more than ten years ago and I finally decided to let that one gallop as a novel, my first time attempting to write one of those in a long time.

Most of my writing is freelance journalism. That means working for a handful of publications on the Internet, magazines, and books. That sort of writing that is more like carpentry than anything too creative. You have to find the wood to build the chair or table that you want to set your story upon.

I have also written screenplays, and 'coverage' analyses of other peoples scripts. But that's another discipline entirely, a unique format, very visual, present tense, more like real-time haiku, using descriptions and dialog from imaginary characters to project a vision onto the movie screen of the mind.

Three different disciplines, all valid.

Do you have a favorite book or author that inspires you to write, and what is it about their writing that resonates with you?

I already told your mom my two favorite books about writing that I found inspiring: Ray Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing, and Stephen King’s On Writing. I connected to those for their approaches to inspiration, being open to ideas, and the nuts and bolts of capturing those concepts. I would also add Joseph Campbell's The Hero With A Thousand Faces, which is a good one for the more philosophical and anthropological side of storytelling that focuses on the human need for stories. And another important one for any writer is Strunk and White's The Elements of Style –– those two stately gentlemen enforce elemental necessities of grammar. How can you build a house if you can't lay bricks?

I have also taken inspiration from filmmaker autobiographies. Four of my favorites are: (1) Luis Buñuel's My Last Breath (an eccentric Surrealist from Spain), (2) Andrei Tarkovsky's Sculpting in Time (heavy stuff by a Russian poet of the cinema who only made a handful of films, but they were like dreams), (3) The Magic Lantern by the great Ingmar Bergman (Swedish maestro of cinema), and (4) Catching the Big Fish by David Lynch (another eccentric, this time from Missoula, famous for his oddball view of the world).

You may have gathered, I am into weirdo movies, so that's why I am recommending those. But I will warn you, if you throw a rock, you will hit ten writing gurus. When it comes to finding your own style, or source of inspiration, don't take anyone's word for it. Seek your muse wherever it may dwell. It's sometimes worth reading poetry and the classics, or wandering into an art gallery. But, a punk-rock song might also float your boat.

Inspiration is the most ephemeral part of storytelling voodoo.

How do you craft stories that capture the hearts of your readers, and what kind of impact do you hope your writing will have on the world?

To help my journalism, I have a single word pasted to my desk at eye-level: 'clarity.' You might be surprised how important that can be.

For a magazine story, when you interview a bunch of creative people, you have to develop the skills of listening, thinking, and then articulating the essence of what they are saying in so many hundred words or less. For that, clarity is king. I used to work for a magazine that practiced long-form journalism, where stories ran 8,000 to 10,000 words. For those, I averaged a dozen interviewees per story, sometimes double that, so boiling down all that blather to express ideas at their essence was always the name of the game.

The same applies to creative writing. It helps if you know what you want to say. And don't wear out your welcome.

The books that I've had published are what they call 'licensed publishing,' which is another thing entirely. Those are generally assignments. Usually, a publisher has acquired the license to produce a book about a certain topic, like a film or TV series. They'll ask me to come up with my take on that subject, which I'll present to them in a written pitch document. If we jibe, we'll work out an agreement to make sure we're all on the same page, how long they want the book to be, and what happens if the client does not like the work. It's like being a tailor, crafting a bespoke suit. For that type of publication, often sold as a 'coffee table' book of 200-300 pages, I can interview 25 to 100 or more people, depending on the topic. That takes patience, and can feel like being a detective on a case.

There is a craft to writing for magazines and publishers, but there is nothing like flying free on a creative project of one's own. Juggling both can be tricky. Would you want to work on your novel, or short story, after a ten hour day of slogging through revisions on a client-mandated freelance gig? You have to find a balance. Listen to your muse, and find a way to keep fanning your creative spark. It helps to be able to pay the rent and buy groceries––how's that for ambition?! But seriously, if you happen to be a gifted mathematician, or an expert at fabric arts, or some other non-writerly arena, there is no harm in building one profession to feed your passion.

I think the best advice I can give is: write to please yourself. Keep at it, too. Learning to write well is like learning to ride a horse, or playing a musical instrument––the only way you'll gain any skill as a writer is to keep writing. Stephen King claims to write every day!

Hope this helps. And good luck on your journey.

Joe

P.S. A few of the inspirational titles I mentioned:

• Ray Bradbury's Zen in the Art of Writing

• Stephen King's On Writing

• Joseph Campbell's The Hero With A Thousand Faces

• David Lynch's Catching the Big Fish