How Ambition Kills Great Writing

Do you want to make money with your writing? Or maybe finally get some attention and recognition after a lifetime of neglect? Well, today I will be talking about the virus of ambition and how it ruins great writing!

[@JBreedloaf]

I’ve been trying to replicate the journal style meditations of Marcus Aurelius to try and help record the mini “revelations” I have about the world around me at least once a day. Like the way the river I walk looks like hundreds of flowing knapped glass shards in the moonlight. It feels like collecting little treasures for myself. The joy of finding a description that just feels right is worth pushing beyond the initial mental strain.

[@Dino_Medici]

Bro that is so sweet my email is in my about me send it over if you like

[@kentjensen4504]

That's a wonderful thing to do. I hope you keep that up. When you each a stae where it feels like a chore or pointless, push yourself to still do at least a little. I think that will make a difference, create some sort of personal magic.

[@NeoCoriolanus]

Lucid, clear, and insightful, how soothing this was to watch. Thank you for putting this out. I needed it.

[@Snarflelocker]

i just love the authenticity you bring, especially by not redoing bits when you verbally stumble and use an adjective instead of an adverb. it makes you so much more relatable (and thus reliable) that you don't care about verbal typos. you're willing to let us see and hear your mistakes because that's honest art and teaching

[@kevissimo]

A wise person once said, "poetry can survive a mistake but it cannot survive a lie." That has always stayed with me.

[@simon2776]

“The completely unambitious writer and the really good unpublished poem are the things we lack most at this time. There is, of course, the problem of sustenance.” -Evan Shipman in ‘A Moveable Feast’

[@ZakJames]

The serendipity of this timing is insane. I needed to hear this this week. Thank you.

[@MrUndersolo]

I like this one, sir! I have to keep telling people who read my work or want to write that it is not just about fame or money (ha, ha). I do it because I love it. If that doesn't exist, then it will not work.

[@user-xd1xf9rp5p]

I’ve been told by successful, good writers, that the process is work. “Writing is the easiest thing in the world to not do.” Pushing yourself forces you to do things you otherwise wouldn’t think of to do.

[@drunken87]

I had a sentence I wanted to put into a poem for ten years, then I took a walk and it all fell into place. The ten years I tried it, wanted it and I failed. Then, "out of the blue", it revealed to me, what its place was. I was amazed and flabbergasted and shaken and almost cried. It was easy and just right. It aligned itself with me. You can´t plan for this. Let it go and it will come to you, godspeed!

[@twelfthhour]

Great video; really enjoying this channel!

[@D3athL1vin]

Wise words that seem applicable to other creative mediums as well, then again writing is foundational to many of them

[@WriteConscious]

Yes!

[@mrsmax3071]

If you do have kids, I suggest taking them to a park or into the wilderness and watching them play. There's something to be learned from a five-year-old throwing rocks in a creek. His joy is so pure and he is free. I also agree with putting work out there for others to engage with while you work on a novel. I write erotica and post it online for free and I can't tell you how cool it is that people read it. Like if I dropped tomorrow, my stories would still exist for people to read.

[@sharoncurran6622]

Always make me think! Thank you...

[@wrestledeep]

Let me ask you all something: We have seen how Write Conscious has pointed out many great artists like Hemingway and David Foster Wallace who eventually took their own lives. How much of that was due to some contribution of the trappings of fame and materialistic success? I feel that as a true artist there is almost like a mutual exclusivity when it comes to true artistic expression and catering to popular opinion and marketing sales. I believe that a country that constantly is focused on Consumption and Capitalism is the antithesis of what should inspire the true creativity of an artist. Furthermore it is the constant attempt of trying to compartmentalize these two extreme opposite urges leads to one's downfall in their personal life eventually.

[@CINEMARTYR]

Here for it 🔥

[@JackManhire]

Great insight. I'm struggling with this right now. Need to turn to my next manuscript.

[@racine1967]

Ian do you have a poetry book out? I would love to check it out.

[@christopheryuen9498]

I already agree with this, but thanks, I needed the reminder.

[@kentjensen4504]

Wonderful insights. Again. You're a treasure.

[@r.w.jagodnik6723]

Hi Ian, thanx for doing what you do! :) During the first half of this video, I found myself unintentionally nodding yes yes and yes. After reading thousands upon thousands of books through the years, I find I just wish to return to writing like the 6 year old who wrote a story about Shakespeare in Bookland -- completely loving the art of putting words together to influence how somebody else -- a reader -- might 'be' in the world. :) Thanx for reminding me. (BTW, big fan of Basho . . . Han Shan (Cold Mountain) wrote his poems on rocks . . . not Basho :)

[@connortheassassin]

Fantastic as always Ian, really appreciated today's message. Do you plan on streaming again any time soon?

[@user-xd1xf9rp5p]

McCarthy said the book depends for its life on the ones that came before it.

[@ubir9743]

V. Curious to hear at what age McCarthy and Wallace actually kicked off and started writing seriously??

[@noahfranks984]

It would be cool to see a video all about teaching high school english. I am considering going back to college for that purpose but as i already have a fair ammount of student debt from an abandoned philosophy degree i am not sure if its worth it or not.

[@ramontamayo1305]

Dude… where do you get your blood meridian shirts?

[@carrion-vj1yz]

Sounds like a certain form of Chaos Magick. Also a couple of really good poetry books are Poems for the Dead and Still Dead by Hart D. Fisher.

[@plabby7892]

i really want to get into poetry, would you suggest anything to start with?

[@connortheassassin]

Mountain Home: The Wilderness Poetry of Ancient China

[@PEGGLORE]

Trout Mask Replica.

[@iammraat3059]

Robinson Jeffers

[@jakfan09]

Have you read Otessa Moshfegh?

[@connorhlane]

She’s gutsy

[@jackson633]

I've never had so little to show for having read a book as when I read My Year of Rest and Relaxation. It's a beautifully written waste of paper.

[@NOPE.S.P.]

The word comes only to those who leave the world behind... See it stranded in an ocean of ink where a tide of torments turns life's empty pages gently away... See it scrawled on unseen surfaces where a soul was crumpled up and tossed out with old receipts for lack of greater value... See it crouch behind the blackest pupils that study every linguistic photon for some secret, shimmering light... See it written in the immortal language printed on those few fingers that reach to touch the spark of the divine... See it etched into the sagging skin around those eyes that stare into the sun, unblinking and un-blind... See it in the winds that howl unheard, against skies that cloud their ears, but still can't help but cry in floods that never wash our tearful stains away... See it printed on the epitaph left blank above the tomb of every unknown soldier... The word comes only to those who leave the world behind, but none of us can stay too long here anyway. And what else is there to say...

[@K.P.LEE4]

“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8

[@zacnewford]

truuuuu

[@Sepazuzu]

puts steven king in thumbnail...you starting to lose me man

[@JackManhire]

I love Stephen King. Not all of it, not even most, but the guy's a legit writer who knows how to produce stories.

[@Ozabebop]

Huh? I mean it’s not Lee Child or James Patterson. I believe it was The Stand that ranked as one of DFW’s favorite books. I dunno, maybe instead of throwing shade just stop typing and move on.

[@JackManhire]

@@Ozabebop Respect!

[@JackManhire]

Also, Stephen King makes multiple homages to Infinite Jest and Blood Meridian in Billy Summers (good story), and I think "the complete works of Cormac McCarthy" in The Institute (meh on story there).

[@fireball43]

I'm willing to bet a lot of his haters couldn't muster a book half as good as his best.

[@secularperspective9997]

"Great writing" and "Stephen King" are mutually exclusive.

[@TheTrueRandomGamer]

So he's never written a single great book or short story? Out of hundreds of examples? You've read his entire body of work and feel confident making that claim?

[@secularperspective9997]

@@TheTrueRandomGamer Yes.

[@TheTrueRandomGamer]

@@secularperspective9997 So Shawshank Redemption isn't great?