A couple months ago, television writer Dan Harmon, creator of "Community" and co-creator of "Rick and Morty," came to visit the University of Washington for an evening of discussion with the students.
The night was filled with stories and anecdotes of Harmon's relationship with comedy and his experience working as a writer in the entertainment industry. I laughed when he said he hated writing. "I hate writing. I'm still trying to figure out how to retire," he said.
Toward the end of the evening, students were allowed to ask Harmon their own questions. Two microphones were set up, one on each side of the room. A student went up to one of the microphones and said, "I want to be a writer. What advice would you give to someone who wants to become a writer?" I was intrigued by this. I wanted an answer to this question as well, so my ears perked up. This seemed important.
There was a moment of silence as the audience waited in anticipation for a response.
"You have to learn to write badly before you can write good," Harmon said. I thought about that for a moment. It sounded accurate. How do you know what good writing is if you don't know what bad writing is? How else can you improve? I thought of an example of my own disastrous writing, instantly recalling a poem I had written for my poetry class where I tried to focus on using sound. I knew it was tragic, and my professor knew it was, too.
Like a follow up to his last statement, Harmon said, "Prove that you can write horribly. Prove that you suck at writing." I felt confused for a moment. He explained his reasoning. "The one thing you can excel at is sucking. Might as well prove it," he said. I guess that makes sense, I thought. You can only go up from there.
Harmon then brought up the idea of perfectionism. "Don't focus on writing something perfect. If you spend your time trying to write something that's perfect, you won't end up writing anything at all," he said. He went on to say that if you have a dream story you've been wanting to write since you were young, scrap it. You'll end up stuck, never writing it, because you'll want it to be perfect. Additionally, he said, "No good writer will ever think anything they write is good."
After listening to Harmon's advice, I felt that I gained some insight into the writing world. What he said, in conclusion, continues to stick with me. I remember it when I find myself struggling, prepared to give up on becoming a writer altogether. He said, "Being a writer is the hardest job. You never know what's coming next. If you know what's coming next, you're writing someone else's story."
