Tim KashaniAligning humanity and technology through story-driven action and impact | Co-Founder, Apples & Oranges | Technologist, Director, Writer & Producer.

ShowbizU: How to Survive as a Writer- Robert McKee

Name: ShowbizU: How to Survive as a Writer- Robert McKee
Uploaded: 2014-07-22T18:35:34+00:00
Duration: 2 min 28 s
Channel: Tim Kashani
Description: In this lecture, Robert McKee advises aspiring writers that a successful writing career demands a long‑term sacrifice of 10‑15 years of dedicated…

22 Jul 2014 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

2:28

In this lecture, Robert McKee advises aspiring writers that a successful writing career demands a long‑term sacrifice of 10‑15 years of dedicated practice, often while holding unrelated jobs to pay the bills. He stresses that a writer’s early work will be the worst they ever produce, but writing repeatedly is essential for improvement. Persistence is not about endlessly re‑working the same screenplay; instead, writers should finish a piece, learn from its reception, and then move on to new stories, continually expanding their repertoire. McKee distinguishes true artists from dilettantes, arguing that quitting after a first failure shows a lack of artistic commitment. By telling many stories, honing the craft, and maintaining a disciplined work ethic, a writer eventually reaches a point where their work resonates with audiences and achieves success.

Chapters

It's really hard. It's a sacrifice. It's an enormous sacrifice. As the young writer, you've got to be willing— happy, actually, happy— to give the next 10, 15 years of your life to writing, whether or not you sell anything. You will drive a taxi or clerk in a hotel, do whatever it is to pay the rent, But you've got to write, and you have to realize that the first things you write are the worst things you'll ever write. And 10 years from now, you'll look back on the stuff you're writing now, and you'll see how amateurish it was. But you had to write to get it out and to move to the next and to the next and the next and learn and get better and better at it. And if you're dedicated and you've got talent, you will get better and better until you finally reach a point where people read what you've written and go, wow, that's true. And so there's a tendency that if the first thing I write does not sell, I quit. And those people are not artists. Those people, in my judgment, are dilettantes. And if you can't sell the first thing you write, so what? You learn. The second thing. And, and in terms of persistence, by the way, I don't mean you keep beating the dead horse of the same screenplay year after year after year. That's not persistence. That's, that's, that's a kind of insanity. You keep doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. You take the screenplay or the play or the novel you're writing and rewrite to the best you can. If, if it doesn't work for other people, then you move to your next and your next and your next and your next. A writer is not somebody with a story to tell. A writer is somebody with stories to tell. And so you tell different stories and, and, and progress. And so, and so don't quit, but don't beat the same screenplay to death for years on end. Tell stories. Best you can until you master the art form, and hopefully you'll find your success.