Meet David Quiroz Jr.

We recently connected with David Quiroz Jr. and have shared our conversation below.

Hi David, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

I credit my parents for instilling a great work ethic in me. From a young age I was always taught that I’d have to work for anything I wanted. I was washing dishes at a sports bar when I was fourteen, and have worked every day of my life since then. I knew I wanted to be a writer from a very young age, but I had no connections in the industry, and no one to mentor me or provide guidance as I was starting out. The only way I grew a network was by constantly writing and getting my work out there. Had I not had the work ethic I do, I would have never gotten my work in front of the right people to get me where I am today. I’m grateful I was raised to understand that nothing would be handed to me, and that I’d have to hustle and put in the hours myself to get any opportunity.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I’m a horror writer from Arizona with numerous credits in film, comics, and podcasts. I’m the creator of the independent comic book series Night of the Chihuahuas, a horror-comedy about chihuahuas getting hold of a serum that gives them strength to back up their vicious attitudes.

I specialize in writing horror stories about flawed heroes confronting their worst fears. My work focuses on blue-collar characters and utilizes my experiences growing up mixed race in the suburban Southwestern U.S. With few exceptions. I try to set everything I write in the state of Arizona as it’s my home. I use my work to explore common themes from an uncommon perspective, and the creatures or malevolent entities at play usually take a back seat to the ill intent of the humans involved.

I’m fortunate to have developed a network of like-minded creatives, and have numerous projects in development. I’m a writer on the new comic book series based on the Tremors film series, and have stories in a few upcoming horror comic book anthologies. I’m working on my first novel, and continue to develop screenplays. One of the feature films I wrote – a horror-comedy about a sales team running afoul of a zombie deer while on a corporate retreat – is in post-production, and another contained thriller I wrote is in pre-production, so I’m very excited about those!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I know we discussed work ethic earlier, and I would say that has been the most important quality to have if you want to be a creative. Unless you were born into the industry, or have rich family bankrolling your endeavors, you are going to always need to be creating to stay connected. I joke sometimes that I use my work ethic to compensate for my lack of talent, but there is some truth behind being able to deliver a draft when you say you will versus a more talented creative who can’t make a deadline. If you can work hard and be dependable you will hone your craft through experience.

Another skill I think is incredibly important is to learn how to accept failure. We have our son in competitive sports, and when I was consoling him after a loss I realized how important it was that he was learning this lesson now at a young age; sometimes you work as hard as you can, and do everything right, and you will still lose. You have to learn to get off the mat and move on to the next fight. I’ve seen this industry knock people down and they never got back up. I’ve seen creatives burn bridges because they took a loss personally and lashed out unprofessionally. If you talk to any creative – especially the most successful ones – they will have a whole slew of failures under their belt for every success they had. You can’t take it personally, and you can’t let it stand in the way of your next endeavor. I’ve known some very talented people who couldn’t handle failure and burned out, and it’s a shame.

The last one, which I think ties into both of the aforementioned skills, is professionalism. Being a creative is work, and you have to treat it like a job. I’ve known creatives who blew off deadlines, or didn’t communicate in a timely manner when contacted, but all of the most successful ones knew the importance of being a professional and following through on what’s been contracted, or communicating any roadblocks while developing their art.

Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?

I talked earlier about how important it is to be able to handle rejection in this industry. To handle rejection you need to have perseverance, and I think that’s what’s helped me to overcome challenges as a writer. Being able to persevere on a project you believe in after being told “no” is incredibly important, cause with rare exceptions you will likely hear several “no’s” before you hear one “yes”. But all it takes is one “yes” to change your life.

You’ll also need perseverance to overcome things like writer’s block, imposter’s syndrome, and those long stretches between projects. Art is not for the faint of heart, and when I teach writing I usually advise students that if there’s anything else they can see themselves doing in this life then they should probably pursue that instead, because this industry will chew up anyone pursuing it with less than a full commitment. I’m grateful I developed that work ethic in my youth to always keep writing no matter what, as it’s allowed me to weather many storms and continue developing stories even when it would have been easy to give up and walk away from this path.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/davidquirozjr
• Instagram: @davidquirozjr
• Twitter: @eldavidquirozjr

Image Credits

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