Blogocentric Formulations

Writing Mistakes and Achieving Excellence

Brooklyn shared this link with me today:

http://www.sff.net/people/Roger.Allen/essays/mistakes.htm

As an avid reader and writer, and someone who has done more than my fair share of reviewing, editing, and commenting on the writing of others, I thought this was an excellent resource for several of the mistakes and problems that most frequently crop up in creative writing.

I think that the most important statement, though, was toward the end:

In theater, and in fiction, we have developed the myth of the Noble Failure. The artiste struggles endlessly and produces a work so dense, so sophisticated, so brilliant that no one can understand it, and thus it is shunned by the critics and the public alike. The artiste, however, knows it is brilliant and they are all fools.

Very rarely, this myth is true. It is, however, far more common for someone to crank out a mass of technically inadequate, self-indulgent, incoherent drivel, and then hide behind the myth, rather than accept the failure of his or her own work. It's a tempting option. Writing crap makes you look stupid, whereas being a misunderstood artist makes you look cool, sort of the way wearing a beret does.

This actually reminded me of an article that I read a number of years ago about the Five Levels of Excellence:

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/10/30/8391727/index....

The article is worth reading, but in summary, there are basically five steps to achieving excellence in some area. They are:

         Unconscious Incompetence - Basically, you're not any good, but you don't even know you're not good yet.
         Conscious Incompetence - You still not any good, but at least you know it now.
         Conscious Competence - With a little bit of effort, you're decent at what you do.
         Unconscious Excellence - You're decent at what you do, but there are moments of excellence mixed in there.
         Conscience Excellence - With a little bit of effort, you're consistently excellent in what you do.

It was originally written in a business context, but I think it absolutely applies to the craft of writing, and I think it's an incredibly accurate representation of the types of writers of all levels that can be found in Hollywood, on Writing.Com, or in any other group.

What's particularly interesting to me about these two links is how the idea of the Noble Failure feeds into the level of Unconscious Incompetence. Have you ever provided feedback to someone on their writing and they just refuse to see any problems with it at all? They're in the Unconscious Incompetence level... they don't know enough to know that what they've written is lacking. Even worse, perhaps they've bought into the Noble Failure myth - whether because of their own beliefs or what other people have told them in the past - and are certain that it's not their work that's lacking... it's your inability to recognize their genius that's the real problem. It's not their failings, it's yours.

The unfortunate thing about the Unconscious Incompetence level is that you can't get out of it if you're not willing to see the faults in your work. The other four levels are tiers that you can attain through hard work, and you're aware of what you can do, and what you can't. But that first step is a doozy, as the saying goes. You have to get over that initial hurdle of recognizing that you're not a brilliant writer from the outset. That it's going to take a lot of time and a lot of hard work before you get to the point where you can write competently, let alone brilliantly.

And it can be really hard to get over that hurdle, especially if you've been told you're talented in the past. Everybody wants to believe that they're exceptional... and nobody wants to spend days, weeks, months, or even years pouring their energies into a piece of writing only to hear that it's sub-par. It's easier to believe the Noble Failure myth, where the genius in the piece is just misunderstood and unappreciated.

As a writer myself, I sincerely hope that everyone is able to see the truth about the quality in their own writing. Not because I want them to experience any unhappiness or disappointment in their own work, but because I want everyone to have the best shot possible at the career they want. If someone wants to be a professional writer, I want them to realize their dream. But in order to realize that dream, they have to recognize the faults in their own work... and be willing to put in the time and energy to improving.

On average, a screenwriter finally lands a check for their work after completing their seventh script.

Stephen King says you need to write a million words before you're a good writer.

If those are the standards... I've still got a ways to go.