Introduction
Welcome readers! Today’s post is all about Tyler Perry and the lessons we can learn from his life and writing process.
Perry’s CV
Often criticized and mocked for his formulaic movies and plays, Perry created a niche for himself by telling stories that resonated with his mostly Black Christian audience, which enabled him to become a multimillionaire and build a media empire.
But how did Perry get his start?
Long before he played Alex Cross, Perry wrote plays such as I Know I’ve Benn Changed that featured strong Black woman and Christian themes. Initially, Perry’s plays were met with poor reviews and at one point, he lived in his car.
But he kept writing, editing, and retooling his plays until he they resonated with audiences in Atlanta and beyond.
He got his big break playing Medea in the movie version of Diary of a Mad Black Woman, based on the play of the same name. And it’s his role as Medea that Perry became famous playing and most reviled for.
From there he branched out into screenwriting for film and television, producing, and created a media empire. All because he didn’t give up. I’ll next explore the lessons we can learn from him.
Lesson One: Persistence
Had he given up when he was living in his car, Mr. Perry might not be the multimillionaire he is today, and his dedication to writing is something we can all learn from.
So often writers give up when things get hard, whether in their personal life or with their WIP. At the first hurdle, we’re ready to concede the race, but if we want to make it, then we can’t give up so easily.
You see this often with newbie authors, especially during NaNoWriMo; everyone is psyching each other up about writing a novel in a month.
Then come December, many of those same writers are nowhere to be found when the tough work of making that rough draft into something readable must be done.
You see the same thing in online writing communities where people will start off with such exuberance over their WIPs, only for them to nosedive once the reality of what it takes to be a writer sets in.
I speak of this from personal experience, as my debut novel took several attempts over many years and multiple rewrites before it was publishable. This is because I, like many new writers, only wrote when I felt inspired or when the stars aligned. But I’ve since learned from Mr. Perry’s example and others that you must be persistent with your WIPs or they won’t get done.
Likewise, you must give yourself the time and space to hone your craft as Mr. Perry did.
Lesson Two: Patience
As I mentioned above, when his plays bombed, Tyler Perry continued writing his plays, retooling them, but he also steadily built an audience until he got his big break.
So often we writers and creatives are in a rush to get famous, especially with social media flooding our feeds with news of people getting book and movie deals almost on the daily.
It’s so easy to become jealous and bitter at everyone’s apparent overnight success. However, we can’t let our emotions blind us to the truth: every overnight success was years in the making.
We must get good at our craft while building an audience for it; two things which Mr. Perry did that required patience.
When I first started writing, I had the mentality that if my book was good enough, people would just buy it.
But that was not the case.
With more people than ever writing and releasing books, you need to market your book like crazy and build a readership.
Hell, I’ve been on social media writing spaces for over a decade and am still trying to build my author platform. Which leads me to my next point.
Lesson Three: Find Your Audience and Give Them What They Want
Though he’s often criticized for recycling the same themes and plots, Mr. Perry’s audience continues to see his work, so they must like it. More importantly, he’s found his tribe.
But how did he do this?
Easy: repetition and iteration. By putting his work out there over time and fine-tuning it until it resonated with people, he found his audience, what they wanted, and continues giving it to them.
And so too must you if you want to build a readership.
Don’t be afraid to try hard and fail often on the way to success like Tyler Perry did. His work, like yours, isn’t for everyone, and the sooner you realize this, the better you and your work will be.
Though often disparaged for writing for the “Chitlin’ Circuit,” venues geared toward Black audiences in the Midwest, south, and eastern US, Tyler Perry found success here because he gave the market what they wanted, while remaining true to himself and his artistic vision.
It’s this razor’s edge we must balance if we hope to succeed. And you do this by sending your work out into the world and taking in the feedback you receive while retaining your vision for work.
But as you’ll see next, not all criticism carries the same weight and you should ignore some of it, especially if it comes from those outside your audience.
Lesson Four: Screw the Haters
People often criticize Perry and his work for perpetuating negative stereotypes about the Black community and pushing his religious worldview. Critics claim Medea and other characters of his perpetuate the stereotype of the Mammy, and that Perry’s tendency to make the villains of his works dark-skinned and the heroes/heroines light-skinned is colorist and rooted in anti-Blackness. He’s also been called out for not using writer rooms and instead writing all his work himself.
I find merit in both complaints. However, there is no denying some of his critics are just haters and you’ll have your share of them too.
No work is universally loved, and writers must have a thick skin if they want to make it. And as I stated above, if you want to get better at writing, then you must be open to constructive criticism.
Had Perry not heeded the feedback he got on his early work he might still live in his car. However, there’s a difference between constructive criticism and straight up haters. The former is rooted in reality and should strengthen your work, while the latter is rooted in jealousy and/or outright hate of the creator or their work.
So take nothing someone says about your work as the gospel truth.
While Perry’s movies often don’t score high marks from critics, he’s not writing for them. He’s writing for his audience, and so should you, as they are the ones buying your work. And Tyler Perry knows this well, which is why he continues delivering the same work with the same themes and characters.
Because they have proven to be profitable.
But as I’ll show next, Perry wasn’t content pumping out the same content. He branched out into TV shows, movies, acting, producing, and built a media empire.
Similarly, writers must branch out, which requires stepping outside of our comfort zone.
Lesson Five: Step Outside Your Comfort Zone
The success of his plays allowed Perry to transition to screenwriting for film and television, and eventually trying his hand at acting, making him a multimillionaire. But he’d never have gotten to this level of fame had he not taken the risk of stepping outside his comfort zone.
As writers and creatives, we can get so attached to a genre, theme(s) and characters, they we cease growing and pigeonhole ourselves. Sure, write what you love, but if you aren’t willing to take risks with your work, it’ll result in stale stories that will bore your audience.
Moreover, don’t wed yourself to a single medium. As writers, we can create stories for comics, manga, video games, and other media outside of books. And with the advent of the internet and social media, we can experiment with various platforms such as Kindle Vella, Amazon’s serial novel platform, Webtoons, and other online comics/manga sites to get our stories out there.
The point is to experiment and find what works best for you to connect with your audience and give them what they want.
Of course, with any experiment, there will be failures, but if one thing fails, you keep going until you find something that works. Give yourself permission to try new things and fail hard often. Don’t be afraid to say yes to an opportunity, even if you aren’t sure you can do it. Treat everything as a learning experience and reiterate your process until you’re where you want to be.
This’ll mean facing your fears, and one of the biggest we must slay is that we and our work aren’t valuable.
So often you see the advice to give away your best work, but your endgame should be creating multiple streams of income from your writing, as Perry has done. And you can’t do that if you’re paid in exposure, or you severely devalue your work. You’ve spent months/years working on your WIP, so you deserve to get paid well for it.
By stepping outside your comfort zone, you just might find your next hit, and if you’re lucky, become the next Tyler Perry.
Conclusion
Love or hate him, there’s no denying Tyler Perry has found his audience and continues to give them what they want time after time. You might not agree with his process, but then every writer has their own way of doing things. So, take what you will from this post, then go out into the world and write your asses off.
Thanks for reading this post and let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
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