Unless you haven't been on the Internet, or watching TV, or reading entertainment news, or talking to anyone at all over the course of the last nine months or so, you've most likely heard of Hamilton. Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator, writer, and former star of the play, described it in an interview as "a love letter to writers". So what writing-related wisdom can we collect from the hit show? Let's take a look at the song lyrics and see.
1. "Write day and night like you're running out of time"
If you want to be good at anything, the first and most important things you need to do is practice. If you want to be a better writer, the first and most important thing you need to do is write. Write journal entries, essays, emails, blog posts, short stories, novels, flash fiction, fan fiction, personal essays, tweets, whatever you can. You need to get as many hours of practice under you belt as you can.
2. "Scammin' for every book he can get his hands on"
Second thing you need to do if you want to be a better writer: read absolutely everything you can get a hold of. Finding your voice as a writer starts with exposing yourself to as many different genres and styles as you can. So fill up your bookshelf and get reading.
3. "There's a million things I haven't done, but just you wait"
Most people who want to writers are just that, people who want to be writers. But I have news for you: if you don't write, you're not a writer, you just intend to be one. You cannot build a reputation, a following, a career, a body of work, or anything else out of what you intend to do. So stop intending and just do. Which brings us to...
4. "I'll do whatever it takes, I'll make a million mistakes"
You're going to screw up and you're going to face rejection, and you're going to pour a lot of effort into some things that ultimately won't work. That's true of every worthwhile pursuit in life, and it's true here too. You have to give patient enough with yourself to give yourself room to mess up, especially at the beginning. You can't expect to be brilliant right out of the starting gate. Learn what you can from your mistakes and keep going.
5. "Do not throw away your shot"
Combining all of the above, there are always a million excuses for why you haven't started writing yet. It's easy to say that you don't have the time, or you don't have any good ideas, or you don't think you can commit to a project right now. It's easy to say oh, if only this thing was different in my life I'd write. I'll start at the end of the school year or after I've completed this big thing I'm working on, or after this thing changes. At some point you have to accept that that's not what your life is like, at least not right now, and learn how to work in the space you have available to you. If you wait until your circumstances are what you wish they would be before you start, you'll never start.
