My friend Steven is a movie nerd.
If you love movies, you’ll love him. He’ll tell you who shot the movie, the inspiration behind the film, the nitty-gritty dirty-fingernail-scandals onset, and if you’re lucky, he’ll do all this while offering to share his famous, buttery popcorn.
He’s a hell of a guy.
The other week, we were watching a movie by my favorite director, Quentin Tarantino. Now, Quentin is an interesting cat. Aside from the fact that his fingerprints are firmly cemented on pop culture, he has a phoenix story; he rose.
After starting as a virtual nobody, through sheer talent, passion, and will, he transformed his life from behind the counter of a video store to being the man who wrote, directed, and acted in some of the best movies ever to grace the silver screen.
What I like most about Quentin Tarantino is he’s a writer. He’s written his own movies, dreamt up his own characters, and created stories worth sharing.
Considering that you’re reading this on Medium, the hub for writers, I wanted to explore his philosophy to see if Quentin had any insights we could use to improve our writing.
So grab some of Steven’s popcorn because the show is about to begin.
Raise The Stakes
“I Had To Get Out Of Loserville” — Quentin Tarantino
Even though your Aunt Florence and her trademark tapioca pudding really dig your writing, it doesn’t necessarily mean you made it. When I started writing, I made a personal blog (That my Aunt Florence f*cking loved!), and over time I decided that this is how I want to make money. However, it dawned on me: although I’m doing well in my corner of the internet, if I want this writing idea to work, I need to become vulnerable, risk rejection, and get my name out there. In other words, I have to pay the price.
So slowly, I did what must be done: improve my writing, apply to more prominent gigs, get rejected, swear, dust myself off, and apply again. Over time, I made some money and crafted a career built on using my words. And that, to me, is the coolest thing ever. This all happened because I decided to raise the stakes.
Medium is a platform that is crawling with established and emerging talent. If you have a knack for writing, this is the park you want to play in.
What I’ve learned is to humble myself and ask how can I become a better writer? What are the things that the well-read writers do, and how can I learn from them? I can tell you one thing they all are doing. They raise the stakes.
Actionable Advice: Challenge yourself to submit to larger publications. You’ll never know how high you can climb if you’re afraid to take the first step.
Be Observant
“I am a writer. That’s what I do. It’s a writer’s job not just to write about himself but to look at the rest of humanity and explore it — other people’s way of talking, the phrases they use. And my head is a sponge. I listen to what everyone says, I watch little idiosyncratic behavior; people tell me a joke, and I remember it. People tell me an interesting story in their life, and I remember it.” — Quentin Tarantino
The best writers are wallflowers, except instead of listening to your father curse out the telemarketer whose one errant call ruined dinner (like the kitchen wallflowers did at my house), we listen to the world and notice what moves us. It’s weird, it’s beautiful, it’s frustrating, it’s relaxing, it’s us.
I personally believe the single best way to improve your writing is to be aware. Be aware of the conversations you hear, the books you read, the shows you watch, and the music you listen to. By simply looking out for new words, new ideas, new expressions, well, (spoiler alert)– you’re going to notice them. Be present; it allows you to see life for what it really is —a gift.
Actionable Advice: Make a list or document of the phrases you hear in day-to-day life that stir your emotions. Later, you can use this list in your work.
Work In a Flow
“Oh, very much so. Most of it should be subconscious if the work is coming from a special place. If I’m thinking and maneuvering that pen around, then that’s me doing it. I really should let the characters take it. But the characters are different facets of me, or maybe they’re not me, but they are coming from me. So when they take it, that’s just me letting my subconscious rip.” — Quentin Tarantino
Most writers appreciate the idea of outlines. They are our guard rail, providing comfort as we scale the giant, swaying bridge from our mind to our keyboard. However, the nasty little truth about outlines is they can be restrictive. To me, they go against the whole appeal of writing —freedom.
While I admit it’s useful to know where you want to go, magic happens when you have a thread, and you pull it to see how it unravels. The creative process is not knowing where you’re going and ending up with a better story because of it. It’s allowing yourself to get lost so you can be found.
Without a firm outline, it gives you the space to learn more about the characters, discover unseen motivation, and let your intuition take over.
As Stephen King, the Sultan of Scare, phrases it: “Outlines are the last resource of bad fiction writers who wish to God they were writing masters’ theses.”
Personally, I do a mix of both — I start off with a rough mental outline but let the story flow from there. It’s exciting, it’s scary, it’s frustrating, it’s fulfilling —it’s me. You should do you, but no matter what approach you take, let your subconscious do the heavy lifting, it makes for more unique stories.
Actionable Advice: Figure out your story as you’re writing it. This will allow the creative process to bloom as it sees fit.
Be Passionate About Your Craft
“You don’t have to know how to make a movie. If you truly love cinema with all your heart and with enough passion, you can’t help but make a good movie.”— Quentin Tarantino
Passion is the cheapest insurance policy you can buy to improve your writing —it’s free. Here’s how the policy works: passion breeds discipline. Discipline breeds practice. Practice breeds mastery. If you want to be great, start with passion; it will keep you motivated enough to do the work.
In my opinion, the best writers aren’t the ones with the natural talent (yes that helps), but it’s the passionate writers. They wake up early, stay up late, and put words on paper. Much like muscles growing on a body that regularly exercises, the writing quality improves with those who write. This idea reminds me of a universal truth. Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.
Simply put, if you’re passionate about becoming a better writer, then you’re likely to put in enough work to will it into existence.
Actionable Advice: Work on projects you’re passionate about. Put passion in your lunch pail and bring it to work so you can eat the rewards.
Please like, comment, share and tell me what you think!
I’m a plantser. Like you, I have a rough idea of how the story begins and how it ends, but as to how I get from one to the other, I have to wait and see what my brain develops from the ideas I’ve fed in. I can’t work to a strict plan, it’s too restricting, and my imagination doesn’t work that way. I have an idea that fits with the original idea, even though it wasn’t a part of it, and what comes from that may be something else entirely. Here’s to letting our imaginations run free. 🙂
Cheers my friend, cheers
🍺🍺🍺
That’s it. All in the makings of an attraction.
💯
Great tips!
Submitting to publications was one of the best steps for me. It started when I stopped waiting on a mentor to introduce me to a mutual connection who had asked about my work – they basically forgot about it entirely despite being a paid coach – and decided “Let me just get this done myself!”
Now I work at that magazine!
All of the others helped me on some level – Though I found I really needed outlining to turn my wild ideas into something with a solid structure.
That’s so great to hear – I know outlining is just preference – if it works! Use it! And if you don’t like it – skip it! What magazine?
I am not a movie buff nor am I a fan of Quentin Tarantino movies, but I love this: Figure out your story as you’re writing it. This will allow the creative process to bloom as it seems fit.
I have a hard time using an outline, it blocks me every time.
Me too – cheers to creativity
Wow, love that beautifully put, nice read, I get writers block a lot of time and it can take me a while to get the right words out. But other times it can come quite naturally like I was meant to write, I love writing and I love my movies especially new up and coming films Quinton tarinteno I love he does his own writing and directing brilliant guy .thank you for the nice read I’ll add you on my notifications so I get further updates thank you
so awesome to hear, glad you enjoyed!
Dude! Good words. (Please pass the popcorn.)
thank you! And passing now!
This made me feel better as a panster, but now, I have no idea how my story will end! I guess I’ll let my characters tell me. Thank you!
That’s the way to do it! Stay in the fight – coming from a fellow pantser
He is one of my favorites!
Mine too
Thanks Tony for this great advice! I really enjoyed it. And I’ll have to check out Medium!
So glad you did – check it out – it’s an easy way to share your writing –
and you can even get paid!
Thanks for the much needed reminder, I must continue following my passion(s).💕
Keep going – they only lead to good places!
nice
“The creative process is not knowing where you’re going and ending up with a better story because of it. It’s allowing yourself to get lost so you can be found.” Love this piece of advice, recently I created a series of drawings that acted like a kind of story board, I wrote about each picture and let the story develop from there, I added drawings and wrote new chapters. Eventually I had a novel it was a fascinating process, closest I’ve come to planning the whole story out beforehand. Great article ☺️
Thank you so much and sounds super interesting and fun! I may have to try that myself
This is quite difficult to put into words but you have done a nice job in doing so here. The way I’ve said it to the couple of few people in my life that it’s the unknowable-known and
insecure-secure life. It’s quite difficult I find to relay it to another as a way of life through the word of mouth and by the linguistic vocab word symbol imprinted upon blank canvas, so to say.
hmmm, coming to see as you have helped me see more in tune, is that it is not only a way of life but a way of creative (artistic) creation.
Thank you.
Quentin is such an wonderful guy, not only his movies but I also enjoy watching him speak. Something about him that makes him being at another level.
Congratulations 🎊 👏
Bravo Anthony. This is just great advice about writing and the last words are icing on the cake, they nail the message to the cross📌📌
Also, I love the humor here, you are quite funny and I like to make jokes as well, I believe it is better to laugh even when you are bombarded with problems. Here is a joke “Smile now whilst you still have teeth”😂😂😂 because before you know it, you are 60 years and teeth are falling or giving you tooth aches, ouch, not cool at all😂😂
Anyways, I agree that as Bloggers we need to be passionate about our level of writing and the more we do it, the more better we become and note experienced as well🙏
Plus, I too am a nerd, I love movies so I would get along with that guy.
Have a great week bro😁🙏
Thanks dude – reading this comment was awesome. Life is better then you’re laughing and I’ll be sure to smile 😃 have a great week too my friend
You as well sir Robert. Thanks bro😁🙏
I agree it’s the passion that drives us writers, what is ur id on Medium?
Hey! So I’m Anthony Robert on medium
Thanks
” I admire no doubt it is a real fact Excellent 100% You are the best 🏆🎖️🏆
“
Your aunt Florence sounds rad. Tapioca pudding is mad underrated.
Criminally underrated ! Ha thank you for reading
Nice post, thanks for sharing
Actionable steps again:
“Actionable Advice: Challenge yourself to submit to larger publications.
You’ll never know how high you can climb if you’re afraid to take the first step.
Actionable Advice: Make a list or document of the phrases you hear in day-to-day life that stir your emotions.
Later, you can use this list in your work.
Actionable Advice: Figure out your story as you’re writing it.
This will allow the creative process to bloom as it sees fit.
Actionable Advice: Work on projects you’re passionate about.
Put passion in your ‘lunch pail’ and bring it to work so you can eat the rewards.
“
Indeed!