# Why Does It Take 7 Years For Writers To Find Their Voice - Tony DuShane ## Метаданные - **Канал:** Film Courage - **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC0tBB0Nmbc - **Дата:** 20.03.2026 - **Длительность:** 13:10 - **Просмотры:** 2,318 ## Описание Our two new books... STORY QUESTIONS: How To Unlock Your Story One Question At A Time - https://payhip.com/b/ZTvq9 and 17 Steps To Writing A Great Main Character - https://payhip.com/b/kCZGd Tony DuShane is the author of the semi-autobiographical novel Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk. He adapted the screenplay for director Eric Stoltz, and the film is now available on Amazon Prime. His journalism and essays have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Mother Jones, Penthouse, The Believer, and other media outlets. DuShane has hosted the author interview show Drinks with Tony since 2002. He teaches novel and screenwriting at UCLA Extension. 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Thank you for your support! #writing #reading #books ## Содержание ### [0:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC0tBB0Nmbc) Segment 1 (00:00 - 05:00) I'm just still this wounded human and this is my fingerprint on life at this moment in time. — What does writer's voice mean to you? — Writer's voice I that it takes I guess a long time to hone the voice. I found something interesting. I can't remember who said this in standup comedy, but they said when you do your first open mic night and you totally bomb, that's kind of your true voice. And then it takes about seven years to get to craft and then to get back to that authentic voice. So there's something about the true authentic voice I think is almost maybe a the child within us that kind of wants to come out and tell these stories and we get scared that these stories could be shameful or these it's we have to go through all these different things of putting things on a page and then all of a sudden it's just like oh the the there there's a through line and even my therapist she says if you really read like all the books or you watch all the films on certain people you can kind of vibe what their trauma was like what they're dealing with and I'm and I try to oh yeah know I'm working on this completely different thing and then by the time I get to the end of it and I've been authentic with my voice I get really mad because I'm like oh my therapist is right this is about love I hate myself for this so — wow that's interesting so then for the first if you took the instead of a stand-up comic a writer yeah then even if then people say, "Oh, this is you need to change this or whatever. " That was really their original voice when they started. — Well, it's I think it it's something that you need to come back to. I as we talk about this, I remember 25 years ago writing some of my first short stories which were just um you know I was trying to be transgressive and something but I was also kind of shouting to the world uh in a way to almost offend. I was very into trying to offend and to try to make a mark. So when I did like the my open mic storytelling or whatever, I was there to shake the room up and um there just comes a point where it's just like no, just tell a good story, man. But the original impulse uh was a little more um I think it just me trying to uh use a certain type of aggression to pretend like I know what I'm doing. And then later on the the old voice comes back and you're like, "Oh, no. I'm just I'm just still this wounded human and this is my fingerprint on life at this moment in time with my experiences and where I've come from and everything I've done and just let that wounded human find the way to say what they need to say through story and through Yeah. through telling stories. uh what's the famous quote to um disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. I don't know who said it, but yeah, it's a great quote. — Um, but uh, yeah, and that might be part of fall to so to the DIY sort of punk aesthetic — of that time was very much that, — which is just hilarious, you know, when you look back and I love going down the YouTube rabbit hole of like seeing when the Sex Pistols came to America and it's just like, oh yeah, you know, we're out here cuz we need something different and they're all dressed exactly the same. It's like I just look at that endearing now. those guys used to scare me and now I'm like a cute kids. — Right. But at that time, you know, and sort of this MTV sort of, you know, that was part of how it was. And so, you know, but yeah, underneath that is is something. And maybe that's where the real voice is. I don't know. — Yeah. And I don't what maybe there is no way to find the real voice, but I guess to try to get as close to it as possible is getting close to what we care about. And I feel like my uh my themes that I kind of care about are um kind of just like why are we going to die? That's like that tends to be my question. And uh and it tends to show up a lot in my writing and it's and at the same time I give um fictional versions for it to explain it even though I know that's not what really would happen. say in my speculative fiction where I write about, you know, the afterlife, but it's fun to play with that and go, whoa, what if this is the afterlife? It's kind of sad, but it's kind of funny. — Sure. Or what happens when certain parts of us die and we're still living, parts of our personality or — that? Yeah. — A persona that we thought we were or whatever it was. And there's that quote ### [5:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC0tBB0Nmbc&t=300s) Segment 2 (05:00 - 10:00) that talks about like oh yeah he died at 27 but we buried him at 94 where people just kind of they just go into their this is what I'm going to do and it's a self-protect mode that um that is uh you know look back and go is that a life well-lived or not? And I feel like as writers, if we're doing our work, I feel like that's a life well-lived or maybe I'm telling myself that to keep me going, but I feel like, you know, even this show, that's that that's what you uh both give to the world. That's that's a life well-lived because that it's bringing together people who are very interested in the process of writing. And that's why I'm always recommending your channel to my students and everything because it it's there and it blows their mind. They're just kind of like, is it this is all for free? And it's just like, yeah, you can just watch it and you can learn everything you need to learn by who you guys interview. — Oh, thank you. Well, I'm sure too. I mean, we get a lot from it. Just with Drinks with Tony, you probably get so much too from your guest that keeps you going and grounded. — Yeah. I love it. And there's some guests that I have I would like I am so glad I don't ever have to talk to that person again. And then there's some guests I'm like I really want to be your friend. Can I uh have you know the next there's one author Lee Goodkind who started Creative Non-Fiction magazine and he's in his 80s. He lives in Pittsburgh and I'm like next time I come to New York I'm having lunch with you. Can I fly to Pittsburgh for like the day and have a lunch with you? And he's like yeah of course. And I'm just like I can't I'm excited. I used to be excited to go see Decira live. Now I'm excited to go have lunch with an author in a far away city. — Yeah, it would be cool to have lunch with Robert Smith. So yeah, — I would rather have lunch with Lee. Good kind. Yeah, I mean I do love Robert Smith, but I think um I would have a lot more to talk about with Lee. — Okay. How do you work with writers on their voice, the people in your classes? And um I know you have some UCLA extension classes coming up which is great. — Uh part of it is trying to stay out of their way and then part of it is to get in there and um kind of poke them a little bit. Uh I had a writer once uh many years ago and she's got she went off and had a twobook six figure deal and all and it's so great to see all that happen. But um what one of the the her character her protagonist was a young 12-year-old girl, but the mom wasn't being flushed out. And she was also a mom. And I really made her I was like, you write the mom. You have to dive into the mom's story and the mom wound in order for us to understand the uh the kid. So I that was a little nudge. I don't know if that's a voice nudge or if that's a nudge. Maybe that is a voice nudge because they because she related too much to the mom where it was just like, "No, get into the shadow self. Get into the um the horrific thoughts that we all have sometimes and then pull back. " — You said that sometimes you poke the student a little bit in terms of their story and then other times you stay out of their way and I find that interesting. Can we explore that more? What does that mean? — It's um I feel like after years and years of reading student work every day and then reading work all the time, whether I'm because I'm always reading a novel. I'm always taking in writing. There's that something just kind of clicked where I kind of know when a person isn't going all the way with it or is holding back. I don't I and it's so hard for me to explain and it's it finally clicked when people say even about screenplays where they're like, "Oh, I know on the first page or the second page if it's a go or not. " And it's just like I do know and but I can't explain why exactly because it could have everything in place, but there's just you feel it. It it's just it's a feeling where you go ah it it's just not they're not there yet. It's not this doesn't work. Um, and even on novels, uh, where it's I try to give novels grace of about 20 pages, but after 20 pages, um, sometimes it's just taste, but other times it's like, oh, this is this, you could kind of tell the person's either trying to be safe or trying to be too transgressive and like really stick it at you, which, you know, which is where I went in my early days. So I um and then also I guess a lot of that's vibing the personality and also ### [10:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC0tBB0Nmbc&t=600s) Segment 3 (10:00 - 13:00) vibing the story because some of these stories that my students come up with are pretty intense. — When you were writing do you think about voice or do you just write? I mean you talked about how being transgressive before and you kind of really wanted to be shock people. — Yeah I that's the thing I don't think about. So, especially on first drafts or even on second drafts, I'm not thinking about voice, I'm thinking about getting all of this on the page. Uh, and uh, there I guess there's a certain point, and I guess this is 25 years of putting in a lot of daily work and then some gaps in that, but where I know my voice. I know where I can go. I know where I'm what I'm not good at. If you asked if you said, "Hey, here's a million dollars. Write a political drama. " I'd be like, "Okay, great. " And then I'd pay someone $750,000 to write it for me because cuz I just I just don't know that world. Um and so, but it's uh and but I also know that I can't serve that world. I guess that's where the key is. I But so what are the what are the themes that I can serve? I kind of know. So I just dive into that and then I dive into it completely scared and it's a freezing cold pool that I didn't dip my toe in and just go at it. So — and have you seen different genres like you know was maybe a romantic comedy. I don't know if that would be your thing to watch on a Saturday night, but where the voice was a certain way that didn't matter what it was light and candycoated, but it but there's something authentic about The Voice. — I love certain romantic comedies. What one of my favorite romantic comedies is a Meg Ryan movie called French Kiss. — Okay. — And I adore that film. And I adore it, I think, because the her journey is such a beautiful message to um to go with your heart. But she and she is fighting not going with her heart. She's fighting to be among the status quo and to just get married and get the house. And she's scared of flying and she can't even get to Paris. But her fiance is cheating on her in Paris. So the whole act two is her finally getting on a plane to go to Paris to get her fiance back to bring back what she had in life, but she had to get on that plane and go to Paris to learn about who she was and what she really needed. And I just got chills saying that. I always the movie is hard to find on streaming. I don't know why. There must be some like copyright issues here and there. But to I got the DVD and I watch that maybe once a year and just so I could smile and on my Saturday night as I'm eating my bon bonss and you know wishing I had a cat that I could just sit there. And — thank you for watching the video all the way to the end. Here is a complimentary question from our book story questions. --- *Источник: https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/18028*