The Importance of Writing Dull

I have been making my way through Stephen King's Danse Macabre (slowly but surely) after being introduced to it for a university English assignment (by the way, lots of good notes in there! Who knew?). It is basically one big unorganized essay about a lot of things, but mainly about horror. About a third of the way through, King starts talking about establishing his niche and psychoanalyzing what made him interested in writing horror—and how pointless it might actually be to try to analyze why anyone writes what they write, as he says "you might as well ask the rose why it is red."

He describes writing as something that is done of conscious will, that "writers are made, not born or created out of dreams or childhood trauma" (although, it is interesting, considering a few pages back he did mention that he supposedly witnessed a friend get run over by a freight train when he was a child, but doesn't remember this experience).

I have a point, I swear. Bear with me.

King talks about how writers can have talent, absolutely, but it's not the defining quality of the writer.

Of course there has to be some talent involved, but talent is a dreadfully cheap commodity, cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work and study; a constant process of honing. Talent is a dull knife that will cut nothing unless it is wielded with great force—a force so great that the knife is not really cutting at all but bludgeoning and breaking... (King)

This quote really stood out to me, and so, of course, (un)naturally, I had to highlight it (something I am only just starting to get used to...). If talent is a dull knife, anyone could have it, or maybe even not have it, but either way, it still needs sharpening. Keeping your talent sharp requires practice, as he goes on to say...

Refining talent is merely a matter of exercise. If you work out with weights for fifteen minutes a day over a course of ten years, you're gonna get muscles. If you write for an hour and a half a day for ten years, you're gonna turn into a good writer. (King)

I thought this was funny, reading back over it, because I actually published a work on Vocal called "Exercising Creativity (& Vocal Prompters)" in which I described creativity as something that needs to be consistently worked: "We need to use our creativity and pump it like a muscle." It is an analogy I love and has helped me to feel better about writing things that are crappy, because even if the writing is crappy or dull, it is still something. It is practice, each work another stepping stone to creative strength.

It is something I also ran into with my latest poem, a haiku called "Pour," which is about how sometimes inspiration is scarce, or it's there but it doesn't come to fruition in the way you imagined.

I received a comment from Paul Stewart (the Great Vocal Supporter), that "sometimes the magic doesn't flow. Sometimes...though...you need to write dull...cleanse the system and then the magic happens again." I loved this sentiment, and wholeheartedly agree. Writing dull needs to happen in order to write sharp.

It reminded me, too, of an analogy L.C. Schäfer used in discussing the "A Story Every Day in 2024" challenge, and how we need to be unafraid in facing dull writing. For L.C., the analogy was that writing is sometimes like turning on an old tap:

Initially, the water might flow slowly, and what comes will be mucky and gross. The pipes creak and groan, rusty muck spatters your sparkling white sink. Keep it going. Let the process itself flush out the crap. It'll start flowing more freely, and more clearly. (Schäfer)

This just means that you have to let the water filter itself out. Keep writing and eventually you'll find a steady stream. You have to keep working those muscles, and eventually you'll get strong.

"The point is, you have to be brave enough to be a bit shit. You have to churn stuff out and keep churning it out." (Schäfer)

I love that. "Be brave enough to be a bit shit." It's a necessary thing.

The whole point of this is just... don't be afraid to write with a dull knife. The writing might be dull at first, or even for a while, or maybe it'll be sharp and ebb back into being dull, but as the King himself said, you have to wield talent with great force, even if it means bludgeoning and breaking. Writers are made by exercising their muscles, sharpening their knives, practicing, not just having talent and calling on it when it is needed.

So if you're feeling self conscious, if you feel like maybe your writing isn't all that, or maybe like you have so much to work on, just keep doing it. Keep going. If you're like me and you look at Stephen King's long list of novels with horrific intimidation, remember that this was his practice, too. He wrote and wrote, but he was sharpening his writing all the while.

This was an unorganized piece, undoubtedly, but I'm not going to be too hard on myself. Danse Macabre is, in fact, one big unorganized essay (he even apologizes for it in the beginning and wishes us luck!), but it's still an amazing read. Don't be afraid to be not perfect. Don't be afraid to not get top story, or not be a runner up. Don't be afraid to write raunchy, from pipes that haven't been run through in ages, from a rusted knife, from a weak muscle.

Just

keep

writing.