Turning Yoda’s Wisdom on Its Head
With all due respect to Yoda, the Star Wars Jedi guru is full of s**t.
“Do or do not. There is no try,” he says to Luke Skywalker, a budding Jedi he’s training in Empire Strikes Back.
The line is supposed to be about commitment—to go all in. And I’m all for that.
But this quote only makes sense if you appreciate that Luke really means he’s going to put in a half-hearted try. So it’s not the try that’s Yoda’s problem with Luke. It’s his wavering dedication.
But the quote on its own sends the wrong message, especially to writers. “Do or do not” means write and publish or don’t even bother. Yet we all need practice. And we all don’t get our first novel turned into bestsellers. So does that mean we should all throw in the towel?
Obviously not. Because when we try, we are doing. We’re performing an action—writing. And then we’re doing it again. And again. And again. And if we do it enough times and we learn as we go, then eventually, we’ll have a completed book and then we try to get it out into the world. We’re “doing” again. We’re querying agents or researching hybrid publishers or determining the value of self-publishing.
So absolutely there is a “try”! And most likely fail. And then “try” again.
At the risk of sounding pompous enough to out-wisdom Yoda, I say we rewrite his script:
“Try or try not. That’s all there is.”