A documentation about writing the ultimate heist novel.
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Sometimes I wonder, what’s the point of this? So what if I got a thousand words done? So what if I have an outline? This thing is impossible and will probably be krap. This thing that I am making out to be so important and spending all this time is actually stupid. I think of all the other things I’m neglecting by doing this. All the things that are falling to the wayside.
Then I remember all of the people I’ve studied who have gone through this same process. I’m currently listening to the Storygrid podcast which is a weekly record of Tim Grahl trying to write his first novel. I just listened to episode #140 from 2018, which was 3 years into the project at which point he wanted to convince his editor, Shawn Coyne that he was quitting and was going to throw away the manuscript (yes, I started at episdode #1).
A few episodes later he explained how he had put the manuscript aside and went to a dinner at a writing conference in which he heard another author share some of the best advice she had ever received: "Your super power is the thing you do easily and assume everybody else must do well too, but they don’t”.
A light bulb went off for Tim. This was the clue he needed to realize the theme he had been writing about all along. It wasn’t until he came down off the ledge and took a short break did a message have a chance to come to him.
By episode #146, just 6 weeks later he finished the full 2nd draft and Shawn told him it was good (btw, here’s his book: https://storygrid.com/product/the-threshing/).
It’s really useful, if you have a dream or a project, to get into the weeds of the stories of people who have come before. Seeing someone else get into and out of the exact pit of despair you find yourself heading towards makes all the difference. It’s like sailing from England to America with a map. Even though you can’t see land on either horizon you know if you keep heading West, land will eventually come (and that on the east coast of that land there will be good pizza).
In 10 years I want to have written 4 books, working on my 5th, and be walking Lila to school everyday. Maybe that exact goal will change but in general that’s where I am aiming. I’ll only be 47.
As long as I have patience to work on a 10-year (20, 30-year) horizon I won’t have to get stressed that I don’t have results or recognition now, or next month, or this year. And It’ll be ok to show up everyday for a long time without anything external seeming to change. It’ll be ok to show up and just do the work because I’ll know that I’m on the journey. And being on the journey is the only thing you can control.
Ok, I feel better. Good enough to fire up my laptop on the bus home today.
Have some thoughts? Feel free to drop a comment or hit me up: charlie@charleskunken.com
Other Posts In The Hollywood Heist Series
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