Lock in, Bro

Vincent Giarrano

Over the past month, I have had a total of four people ask me how I write or how to start writing. To my knowledge, only one of those people has actually taken my advice. On the one hand, I understand. I am not a fount of wisdom, and have never claimed to be. On the other hand, after four years of seriously writing both publicly and privately, I think I have a good enough handle on words to offer some small fraction of legitimate advice.

There are mass quantities of writing advice out there. People will tell you to "write what you know" or to "show, don't tell," among dozens of other trinkets of knowledge. My top piece of advice, however, is this: LOCK IN, BRO.

While it might be a demonstration of my level of brainrot and slang usage, it gets the point across. People ask how to start writing, like there's some cheat code or life hack. To start writing, you just start writing. Maybe that means opening up a Google Doc, or maybe that means flipping to a blank page in your diary, but the point remains: there is no way to start writing unless you actually write something. I feel like this fact is so obvious that people must already know it. Why then do they ask the question in the first place?

In truth, I don't think people are asking the question they mean to ask. When they ask, "How do I start writing?" what they mean is, "How do I start writing well?" To this, my answer remains the same. Lock in, bro. You cannot write well if you don't write anything. A badly written paragraph can be edited. A badly written book can be rewritten, but you can't improve something that doesn't exist. You have to write something in order to improve your writing. You have to write poorly before you can write well. Yes, it's uncomfortable, but nothing changes if you don't take action. 

People make a lot of excuses when it comes to art. 

"I wish I could learn guitar, but I just don't have the time." 

"I'm terrible at spelling. I could never be a writer."

"I'd love to paint, but I don't want to spend thirty dollars on the tools."

Even I am guilty of this. As much as I love poetry as an art form, I've insisted time and time again that I am simply incapable of writing it. Why? For me, it's because I'm so scared of screwing it up that I refuse to enjoy writing poetry at all. I have an intense fear of failure, which means that I'm not willing to even try getting better. If I'm being honest, though, being bad at something is a really stupid reason not to do it, especially if it's something I enjoy. I enjoy doing lots of things I'm bad at: cooking, guitar, drawing, and occasionally math. If poetry is something I enjoy, there isn't really a valid reason to stop myself from creating. 

I think the same principle applies to all of us. If you think you don't have the time, but you want to do the thing, then make the time to do the thing! Being an artist doesn't require you to pour six hours a day into creating. You can create for just five minutes at a time. If you think you don't have the abilities, but you want to do the thing, then practice until you do have the abilities! I'm terrible at counting music, but I love both music and dance. Did I quit because I can't count? Obviously not. I just kept practicing until I could count. If you want to do the thing, but you don't want to buy expensive materials, then don't! You can create art of just as high a merit using Crayola crayons or kids' watercolors. Just like you can choose to be happy, you can choose to make art, regardless of its quality or your abilities.

If you want to be an artist, then go make art. No one is stopping you, and if they are, they shouldn't be. Are you worried your art will be bad? Your art is allowed to be bad. In all honesty, it's probably going to be bad. Everyone's art starts out bad. Picasso spent years developing his technique into what we recognize today. Taylor Swift's voice, lyricism, and style have changed since the beginning of her career. They only gained the success and ability they did by practicing and making art, not by Googling tips on how to make art or how to start writing. They just did it. They locked in, bro. And believe it or not, you can do the same.