Posted by John Hewitt on May 31, 2007 under Writing | 
Henry Rollins has had one of the most varied careers a creative performer can possibly hope for. He has worked as a singer/songwriter, spoken word artist, movie and television star, comedian, author and poet. While he had never achieved blockbuster success in any of his chosen fields, he never lacks for opportunities to work and perform. Here are five lessons poets can learn from Henry Rollins.
Write about yourself honestly
I can't really explain it, but I feel as long as I tell them my dark sides there is nothing they can dig up. – H.R.
Rollins’ spoken word performances mostly take the form of a personal memoir. He tells stories of unflinching honesty about his life, whether it portrays him in a good or bad light. The ability to look at yourself and the world around you with absolute honesty can come with a price. Allowing the world to see the true you is not only difficult, it can be downright painful, but it allows you to connect with your audience in a way that few poets ever manage.
Be open to change
I believe that one defines oneself by reinvention. To not be like your parents. To not be like your friends. To be yourself. To cut yourself out of stone. – H.R.
One of the qualities that has kept Rollins in the public eye since 1981 is his ability to move on to new projects. Rollins spent the first five years of his career as the front man for the band Black Flag. When it broke up, he went out and formed his own band. He also began to tour alone as a spoken work artist. He then began a film career with minor movie rolls. This eventually led to his becoming both a radio and television host. Over this stretch of time, he has also written numerous books. While his career has varied, Rollins personality and voice has remained remarkably steady.
Hard work will be rewarded
I just get things done instead of talking about getting them done. I don't go out and party. I don't smoke, drink or do drugs and I'm not married, that leaves a lot of time for my work. – H.R.
One of the reasons Rollins has had such a long career is because he has worked so hard. He is constantly releasing new material, touring and performing. He stays in the public eye because he always has something new to show people. The world can’t forget you if you never go away.
Self publish if you have to
If I lose the light of the sun, I will write by candlelight, moonlight, no light. If I lose paper and ink, I will write in blood on forgotten walls. I will write always. I will capture nights all over the world and bring them to you. – H.R.
Rollins began writing books while he was front man for the band Black Flag. Like many beginning poets, his first efforts at self publishing amounted to photocopied sheets of paper. He later moved up to publishing chapbooks and eventually started his own publishing company. Rollins did what it took to get his voice heard. Today, self publishing is a much easier task. You can publish on the web for free or next to it. Printers are cheap and powerful now, so publishing chapbooks is not an expensive challenge either. Print-on-demand services like Lulu it now make it fairly easy to release full-sized books of poetry and even sell them on Amazon.com. There are no more excuses. If you aren’t publishing, you should be.
Don’t be afraid to fail
Scar tissue is stronger than regular tissue. Realize the strength, move on. – H.R.
Not every poem you write is going to be great. It is hard to please yourself, and it is even harder to please others. Letting other people into the world of your work opens you up to their criticisms. No poet, no matter how good, is perfect. You can find fault with anyone’s work, and people will find fault in yours. Writing in general, and poetry in particular, is such a subjective means of expression. No matter how the good poetry you write is, if you become well known, someone out there is going to hate it. Accept that there is no perfect poem, and no perfect poet. Write what you can write and accept what comes.
Posted by John Hewitt on May 30, 2007 under Movies |
Back in the eighties and the nineties, a typical weekend for me included seeing at least one and as many as three movies. I wasn’t particularly picky about what movies I went to see. I saw almost any comedy, most action movies, plenty of dramas and a smattering of foreign films. I had plenty of company too. Most weekends I had no problem finding two or three friends to go to the movies with me. Life changes for everyone, and it certainly has for me. At this point, I go to the movies about once a month, usually at someone else’s urging, and I almost always regret it. The experience has changed, and I have as well. Here are five reasons why I have stopped going to the movies:
It costs too much
I’m not usually strapped for cash these days, but I’m probably a lot cheaper than I used to be. When I made six dollars an hour, plunking down twelve dollars for a ticket, popcorn and a soda didn’t bother me too much. Now I make around $30 an hour, but the thought of spending forty dollars or so for my wife and I to go to the movies just seems like a waste of money, especially when my local video store (Sorry Blockbuster, I found a better deal) charges me $.99 to rent the DVD complete with features and I can spend the other 39 dollars on far better snacks with money to spare.
I’ve Seen it Before
Hollywood stopped making new movies years ago. They were recycling pretty heavily in the eighties and nineties as well, but now it seems to have reached a fever pitch. Every major movie this year is a sequel. Spiderman, Shrek, Harry Potter, Captain Jack Sparrow. I’ve seen them all before, and in better movies. As for the non-sequels, try to tell any two romantic comedies apart these days. I give major points to The Break Up, because at least they had the guts to let the relationship fail, but it is still a kinder gentler version of the much more biting The War of the Roses. I could go on and on about this, but you get the picture.
Commercials
I don’t go to movies to watch commercials. Thanks to Tivo, I rarely even watch commercials at home. I am perfectly happy to sit through previews of coming attractions, but I do not want to experience jingle spouting dancers shouting the word Fanta at me in Dolby Surround Sound.
Annoying People
Even in the eighties, you had to deal with people talking in movies, but the trend is growing exponentially. Between the people chatting with each other, the people talking on their cell phones and the people texting each other, the theater isn’t just loud, it’s glowing. It's easy to blame this sort of thing on these kids today but I see plenty of older offenders who should know better.
The Rise of Television
While the quality and originality of movies seems to have fallen steadily during my time as a moviegoer, the quality of television has risen dramatically. Shows like Lost, Heroes, CSI, The Shield, Entourage and The Office have raised the bar for television writing and production values to the point that they are every bit as entertaining as movies. Sure, there is a lot of junk out there, but the beauty of Tivo and other DVRs is that you can watch what you want, when you want. In the past, movies (with their multiple viewings per day) were more accessible than television shows, but now that gap has closed.
I’ll always be a fan of movies, but more and more I am waiting for the DVD to come out. There isn’t the sense of urgency that there once was. I know I can see it sooner or later, and I’m perfectly happy to wait most of the time. Besides, it seems as if the truly unique movies only make it to the video store. The theater is too busy showing POC3 on eight different screens.
Posted by John Hewitt on under Blogging, Freelancing, Writing |
You don’t have to send out query letters
Would you rather be writing articles or query letters? The process of querying publishers can take months and there is no guarantee that it will lead to a sale. With blogging, you spend your time writing actual articles (or stories or poems). You don’t spend your time trying to convince other people to publish you.
You can write about whatever you want
The beauty of blogging is that you are your own publisher. You determine what you write about and then you go and write it. You don’t have to tailor your writing to a certain magazine’s style, space or content rules. You can write in your own voice and develop your own style.
You don’t have to answer to an editor
While an editor can add value to your work with good suggestions and revisions, just as often you can find yourself the victim of arbitrary cuts determined by either an incompetent editor’s ideas or the publication’s space limitations. These are not problems bloggers have to deal with. Bloggers have the freedom to determine the length and style of their work.
You get published faster
The beauty of blogging is that you determine your own publishing schedule. You can publish an article as soon as you finish it or push it back to whenever you want it to appear. The decision is yours. You’ll never get that kind of freedom as a freelancer. In many freelancing cases you have to wait as long as a year to see your work in print. The reverse works as well. If an article is taking you longer than you expected, you don’t have to worry about an editor or client calling to wonder what happened, you simply keep working on it until you get it right.
You can connect with your readers
When you write for traditional print publications or business clients, the best you can hope for is one or two sets of comments. In many cases, you will receive no feedback from your readers at all. With a blog, it is possible to develop long-term relationships with your readers. Not only will they comment on one article, in many cases they will come back again and again with their own ideas and opinions.
Posted by John Hewitt on May 29, 2007 under Blogging |
In his article Blogging Overheads - How Much Does it Cost?, Darren Rowse discusses just how low the expenses of running a blogging business are. His overhead, thanks to being a member of B5 media, is practically non-existent, but even without them he acknowledges that he could run his business on a few thousand dollars a year.
I run several blogs, and thanks to a good deal at Dreamhost, it costs me less than $300 a year to host them all. My computer equipment, internet service, advertising and office expenses run a bit more than that, but my yearly overhead is still around $3000 most years. You have to love a business that allows you to enter the market for so little money. Blogging is a business that relies more on effort and intelligence than money, although a $10,000 a year advertising budget would probably help my blogging business considerably, it isn't necessary.
Posted by John Hewitt on May 27, 2007 under Books, Freelancing, Writing |
Over the past couple weeks I have read and re-read The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
, by Timothy Ferris. It is the sort of book that mixes advice with inspirational stories. Ferris is an entrepreneur who, after nearly killing himself by working 100 hour weeks, devised a method of keeping the wheels of his business running by working the titular four hours. He also found ways to simplify and modify his lifestyle so that he could live quite comfortably and happily on a relatively small budget. I'm not to the point of working four hour weeks, and I'm not sure if I ever will be, but much of his advice makes sense. Here are five lessons that you can take from the book and apply to your writing life.
Stop the Interruptions
It is very difficult to accomplish anything of value when your work environment is chaotic. Multitasking is not conducive to quality work, especially for writers. Find ways to work uninterrupted: modify your work hours, get out of the office, stand up to people who plan useless meetings, send your phone to voice mail, don't be a slave to your email. The important point is to put a value on your time, and don't let others take away that value.
Not Every Job is Worth Taking
One of the problems you can face, especially as a freelance writer, is bad clients. It is amazing how the worst paying clients generally turn out to be the hardest clients to please, but even a pain in the ass client who pays well may not be worth it. The best paying client I ever had was one that treated me badly and didn't respect or even understand the work I did. I put up with it for several months, but in the end I had to say goodbye to the good money and move on. I missed the money (a little) but I didn't miss the job.
Eliminate, Delegate, Automate
Ferris is a big believer in virtual assistants. Virtual assistants are people who work remotely, often from foreign countries where the pay scale is lower, to perform tasks and solve problems for you. These tasks may be professional or personal. A virtual assistant can do anything from perform research and create charts and graphs to schedule interviews or enter data. If you are out of work, they can even conduct a job search for you. While the thought of a virtual assistant may or may not appeal to you, it is important to take a look at the tasks that take the most time and generate the least progress toward your goals. Determine whether or not they can be eliminated, delegated or automated.
See the World
Writers, especially creative writers, need an occasional change of scenery. This starts with a day spent writing from the nearest coffee shop with a hot spot and can grow until you are spending weeks or months working from a foreign country, living in a place you'd only hoped to visit. The beauty of the Internet and cellular revolutions is that you can work from just about anywhere in the world and as far as your clients know, you've never left your office. Those of us who live in some of the richest countries in the world (citizens of the United States, Great Britain and Australia make up the bulk of my readers) will find that the money you make in your home country goes much farther in many other countries. While a permanent move may be more than you want, a few weeks spent on foreign soil (and not as part of some rushed tour group) may be just what you need to recharge your batteries.
Try the Impossible
Everyone says its impossible for an unknown writer to get an article in Esquire, Vanity Fair or Playboy. They also say that Fortune 500 companies never farm out high-paying contracts to individuals. They may or may not be right, but how many of them are actually trying to land these assignments? If you are making a fairly good living from your low-level or mid-level clients or job, maybe it is time to reach for something higher. If you are having trouble generating any work at all, then you truly have nothing to lose by chasing the biggest and the best. The beauty of reaching for the near impossible is that it forces you to step up and try harder, to put together the kind of presentation or cover letter or resume that you never bothered with before because it didn't seem worth it. Take the big risks, at least once in a while.
