Ross Shafer On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Successful Author or Writer
Kristin Marquet for AUTHORITY MAGAZINE 2-09-2022
…I didn’t know that writing jokes and telling carefully crafted stories were being noticed by my heroes. So, I was blown away when The Tonight Show Host, Johnny Carson, sent me a handwritten note saying, “I like your stuff.”
Some writers and authors have a knack for using language that can really move people. Some writers and authors have been able to influence millions with their words alone. What does it take to become an effective and successful author or writer?
In this interview series, called “5 Things You Need To Be A Successful Author or Writer” we are talking to successful authors and writers who can share lessons from their experiences.
As part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ross Shafer. Ross Shafer is a former headlining standup comedian and Emmy-winning talk and game show host. He has written (11) books on performance, market growth, customer friction, and leadership. Ross’s latest book (2021), co-authored by Allison Dalvit, is titled: “RATTLED — Crazy A** Stories of Extreme Resilience to Help You go from Shook to Solid.”
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
As a 10-year-old, I was a secret smart ass. When I heard adults talking, I thought they were boring. So, I would whisper wisecracks to myself. As I got older, I stopped whispering and would finish other kid’s sentences with non-sequitur remarks. My friends would laugh because my words and thoughts surprised them. From then on, my school writing assignments were sprinkled with surprises the teacher didn’t see coming. The revelation that “properly placed” words could illicit emotions like laughter and tears, was my gateway into a standup comedy style. Winning standup comedy competitions led to hosting TV shows. TV became a platform for writing books. And the books propelled me into becoming an Intl. corporate keynote speaker. Every jump in my career came as a result of being able to tightly string the right words together.
Can you share the most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your career?
I didn’t know that writing jokes and telling carefully crafted stories were being noticed by my heroes. So, I was blown away when The Tonight Show Host, Johnny Carson, sent me a handwritten note saying, “I like your stuff.” Jay Leno told me, “You’re one of the funniest guys I know.” I got the same comment from President George H.W. Bush and actor Michael J. Fox. Practically all of my media heroes acted like they knew who I was. Getting that kind of acceptance was the greatest validation an aspiring writer/performer could hear.
What was the biggest challenge you faced in your journey to becoming a writer?
The greatest challenge for any writer has to be editing. In the beginning, I was disorganized and overwrote everything as if I was recording my life in real time. I suffered a lot of rejection because editors would say, “You take too long to get to the point.”
How did you overcome it?
An editor for a local paper took me under his wing and said, “You can cut out half the words in your story and nobody will miss them. He was right. A shorter story was more dramatic and read faster. He also told me, “Stop burying the lead of the story.” I didn’t know what that meant until he explained, “I want you to grab the reader by the throat in your first sentence. The backstory doesn’t get the reader’s attention. Before anything else, tell me who died or who was rescued. Brutal editing gave my stories more pace and tension. And, I got a raise! More money motivated me to be brief and interesting.
Can you share a story about that that other aspiring writers can learn from?
As a standup comedian I was doing pretty well on my own but I wanted to make the leap the TV Show circuit but I didn’t know how to do it. A fellow comic, Wil Durst, told me to spend time with a comedy coach named Jim Richardson in San Francisco. Jim made me watch three dozen comedians who were guests on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. We would use a stopwatch to count how many laughs per minute these comics would get. Six laughs per minute was the magic number. I went to work shaving down the set-ups of my jokes to fit that formula. And it worked! I thought a pretty funny 20 minutes but when I cut it down to 8 minutes I was immediately funnier and my career took off like a rocket. I’d encourage every writer to read your favorite authors and take note of how they exercise brevity to structure their characters, their chapters, and their words. If you want to write a book or a story that is a “page-turner” edit out every single word that doesn’t drive your idea forward.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I was the opening comedy act for hit singer Eddie Rabbitt (Driving my Life Away). Each night I would hear him tell the audience: “People ask me if my name is really Rabbitt. Yes, it is. We are known as the Rabbits of Tennessee.” It didn’t get a laugh and I thought he was wasting what could be a funny moment. One day, I thought of a joke for Eddie. The joke was, “People ask me if Rabbitt is my real name. It is. It was tough growing up with the last name Rabbit. It was especially hard for my sister, Bunny.” He loved that joke and couldn’t wait to tell it on stage that night. Sadly, Eddie told it like this, “Rabbit is my real name and it was really hard for Bunny Rabbitt…that’s my sister’s name, Bunny Rabbitt.”
That lesson underscores how important word placement is to a story. In a joke, the last word (punchline) is what reveals the unexpected surprise. I wrote the joke to send the listener in the wrong direction. The last word pays off the set up with his sister’s name. Eddie revealed a confusing punchline too soon. If you want to build tension into humor or drama, wait until the last word or two to jolt the reader.
In your opinion, were you a “natural born writer” or did you develop that aptitude later on? Can you explain what you mean?
I wasn’t a natural born writer. I was a natural born listener. I could find humor in the context of a conversation. But I didn’t know how to put down on paper what I wanted to say, in the proper order. It took time to acquire a toolbox of writing forms to choose from. Every writer should learn how to employ the devices of simile, paradox, non-sequitur, context, metaphor, juxtaposition, red herring, distinct character traits, and authentic sounding dialog. Those tools will keep the story interesting for the reader…and for you.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
Myself and my co-author, Allison Dalvit, just finished my 11th book: “RATTLED — Crazy A** Stories of Extreme Resilience to Help You go from Shook To Solid.” This is the book we always wanted to write for our five children. RATTLED is a jaggged tour of our lives…the tragedies….the triumphs…and how we got back up when our collective asses got kicked hard. Every writer who has made a living ‘writing on assignment’ has always wanted to finally sit down a write a tale they think needs to be written…without worrying if it will be a commercial success or not. For us, this was an 19-month project we did during the Covid lockdown. We are extraordinarily happy with how it turned out.
Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your experience, what are the “5 Things You Need To Be A Successful Author or Writer”? Please share a story or example for each.
1. EXTREME DISCIPLINE: In my lifetime, I have studied who succeeds, who fails, and why either of those outcomes happened. I did it as an observational kid. I did it in high school and became our Student Body President. As a college football player, I saw what differentiated the best players from the rest. The hardest workers never wavered from their plan. They ate well and got more sleep. They got to the gym early. They studied more game film. If they screwed up, they had a short memory for failure and went back on the field to do better. The same is true in writing. When I was a comedian, the two hardest working joke writers were always Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno. Both of them were very busy performers. With their cross-country travel schedules many of us wondered how they could have time to write? However, they never went a day without spending hours writing new material…often times into the middle of the night. Today, they are arguably the happiest and wealthiest comedians in the world.
2. REWRITE, REWRITE, REWRITE: Writing is hard. Most times it’s a lonely pursuit. There is nothing worse than writing in a vacuum. If you are the only judge of your writing, how do you know if it’s any good? At some point you will have an editor who can help you get through the rough spots. But I also have a few trusted pals who are willing to read my first and fifth drafts. They tell me when a passage doesn’t make sense or when I’ve under-explained a core premise and when I have repeated myself. All I can say is, don’t trust that your first draft will be your last.
3. KILL YOUR EGO: Writers cannot have a thin skin. If you want to be a great writer you will have to risk your fragile ego in order to put your unbridled imagination on paper. In the beginning of my career, I was afraid to do or write anything that would embarrass my father. I admired my dad and he was the judge by whom I measured all success. I had graduated from college and took a job as an advertising copywriter. One night I went to a comedy club and left thinking, “That was amazing! I bet I could do that.” Months later, (and countless open-mic nights) I was finally moonlighting as a comic. When my dad showed up at a smokey nightclub to see my act, he was disgusted, “You are gonna blow up your college degree for something like this? Are you on drugs?” No, I wasn’t on drugs. I was trying to find something more rewarding than writing men’s T-Shirt ads. At some point I had to kill my ego — stop trying to let my father force my path. For years, he would look at me and shake his head. Finally, he was proud of me when I was named the host of a big league network talk show…a TV show I couldn’t have landed if I hadn’t logged hundreds of hours in smokey nightclubs.
4. DON’T GET MARRIED TO YOUR BOOK TITLE TOO EARLY: It is a mistake to give your embryonic book a title even before you have written the book. If you title the book too early you will try to write to the title instead of letting ‘the book’ find its own way. I’ll use my current book RATTLED as an example. For months, we were living with the title, TWO WORDS. The premise was that we could crystallize all manner of fresh advice into simple two-word phrases. As the book’s content evolved, the less we liked our title. That led to dozens of alternative titles. We couldn’t agree on a single one. Then, we looked at our book through a totally different lens; a lens that made us focus on the real guts of the book. It wasn’t about the two words. It was about the trials in life we manage to overcome. One word, RATTLED, said it all. We could finally get some sleep.
5. DO YOUR OWN MARKETING: Nobody will care more about your writing than you do. So, don’t expect that some company will hear about your book idea and volunteer to make it into a bestseller. I’ve been paid an advance from major book publishers who exercised control over the content, the title, editing, and the marketing. I’ve also self-published books so I could take a chance with my own instincts. In both cases, if I wanted the books to actually sell, I had to dig in and promote the books myself. That’s just how it is. If you don’t know how to promote your book, learn. The web is full of “How To Sell Books” and “Best Author Practices” articles and videos. You can also publicize your book on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and by contacting “influencers” who will review your book for a price. Contact your local bookstore and offer to do a book signing. Propose a book event where you, the author, shows up and reads passages from your own book. Otherwise, you will grow old and sad waiting for the extra books in your garage to sell themselves.
What is the one habit you believe contributed the most to you becoming a great writer? (i.e. perseverance, discipline, play, craft study). Can you share a story or example?
Discipline for sure. But not just the discipline of establishing a daily writing goal. For me, it’s the discipline of constantly being mindful, “What’s in this for the reader?” “What value am I providing for the reader?” “Am I making the reader care about this subject?” “Does the reader want the protagonist to win?” “Is the reader going to stop reading because I am over explaining?” I never adopt any arrogance about my writing. Quite the opposite. I think writers should approach the project with humility and curiosity. Most writers know that the story will likely evolve. As writers we should always be surprised by what comes off the page next. That comes from my standup days. I would write jokes for hours — jokes I thought would “destroy” the audience that night. But in the end, the audience always judged whether I was funny or not.
Which literature do you draw inspiration from? Why?
As a kid, it was comic books. I probably had 300 comic books. I loved the heroes and the villains. I loved the drama and the story lines. I even loved it when the cover would say, “Superman Dies!” Even though I knew that was impossible, I suspended reality until I finished the last page. Today, I am drawn to whodunnit crime dramas. (Elmore Leonard, Dan Brown, David Baldacci, Arthur Conan Doyle), I love to learn something and not be able to predict the ending.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
This was a question my coauthor and I thought about a lot when writing RATTLED. It was cathartic writing gut wrenching stories we had locked away for decades. We would like to start a movement where OTHER PEOPLE would have a place to tell THEIR stories of triumph over tragedy — a series of RATTLED books for teens, grandparents, couples, etc. We don’t want other people’s life lessons to be lost to their own families. There is a legacy in every family. A legacy that would inspire children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren to know how their ancestors lived, loved, worked, and survived.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
www.RossShafer.com is the website. Allison and I have a fun, short web tv series we publish each week on www.YouTube.com/User/RossShafer
Thank you so much for this. This was very inspiring!