Yoda

Now that our One-Word series is done, I thought I'd take on another fun topic that I've always wanted to do:

What Rani learned from the movies.

Okay, it's not so cheesy and stupid, I promise. In each post this month, I'll be talking about an element of a specific movie or television show, or a quote/scene from that movie, and discuss how it relates to writing, and what I've gleaned from said movies.

Trust me, it'll be fun.

To start us off...

Star Wars

A wise old Jedi Master said something once, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away:

"Do, or do not. There is no try."

True, right? There can't be "trying" in our lives -- and I'll give you three good reasons why:

1. First drafts

How would we ever get a book finished if we didn't sit down and do it? If you want to write a novel (or even a short story), if you have a story in you that you want to get out, you have to do it. There's no trying here. You either do it, or you don't do it. There's no halfway here, because either you've written a book, or you haven't.

Millions of people have started books. Maybe they say they've tried. But they haven't done.

Be one of the doers.

2. Rejection letters

These happen when we send in our work to a publisher, and they don't like it. Everyone gets at least one rejection letter per piece that they write (usually). But you're not going to get one if you don't send in your work.

The thing is, by not doing it, you're depriving yourself of a learning experience. Many places will give you detailed reasons as to why they're not accepting your piece, and they'll even suggest an editor if you want to move forward with it.

We either do it and buck up, and deal with the heartache of that rejection letter, or we don't do it and we hide behind that fear.

There's no trying here either, my friends.

3. Reviews

My first review was... Less than what I would've liked for it to be. But, just like the rejection letters, I dealt with it. That's what we need to do. There will always be people out there who don't like our work -- that's normal, trust me. What's abnormal is when writers refuse to even ask for a review, when they don't even try to find out what other people think (it's also known as pride).

The point here is, we need to do it. If we don't get reviewed, if we don't find out what other people think of our work, we're never going to improve. And, trust me on this, we all need improvement somewhere.


The moral of the story is, stop saying you'll try, and just plain do it. Yoda would be pleased with you.

[love]

{Rani}