Writing is hard

[rhienelleth]

I have come to the conclusion that one must really, truly love writing with everything one is in order to actually, you know, be a writer. Or an author. Whichever tag you prefer. One must have this compulsion to tell stories, to string words together in interesting and delightful configurations. To a degree, to play God w/the lives of imaginary characters.

I know this is hardly an earth shattering revelation. I mean, really, like anything else in this world, of course it's better if a person loves what they do, right?

Except, there's this fallacy that exists, where some people out there really don't believe that writing is hard. I don't know that these people really believe it's easy (because if so, the mind boggles), but they don't really think it's all that hard, either. You come up with an Idea. You write it down. And Lo, you have Book.

Ah, if only it were that easy, truly!

I remember back when I was participating in a couple of well known online writer's groups. Critique groups. I agreed to trade novels with this guy and crit each other's work. Over the course of a couple of weeks, we read chapters, critted, and chatted via messenger. His wasn't a bad book, but it didn't wow me, either. He knew how to write, and his work was polished. Very few errors in grammar or spelling, and he told a cohesive story. I couldn't quite place what was bothering me about it, until one day when we starting a messenger conversation about writing and struggling to get published. This was his third novel, he revealed, and also, writing wasn't his first foray into artistic pursuits. I can't remember now what else he'd tried and moved on from, but writing was his latest attempt to Make Money Artistically. He told me if this latest book he'd finished didn't sell (and by sell, I mean get picked up and published), he would quit writing and move on to something else.

I was shocked. And baffled.

What? But how could that be? It made absolutely no sense to me that anyone would write 100,000 words of book so...cold bloodedly. Why would anyone want to?? Look, I'm not one of those Deathless Prose writers. I want to get published, a whole lot. I want to be successful and make money at it. But I don't write just so I can dream of hitting the bestseller's list and making bank. I write because I love it. Because characters and their stories are always, constantly, running around in my head begging to be put down on paper. Because it fulfills me, somehow, to do it. If I didn't love it, if none of that were true, I can't imagine choosing to try writing in the hope of success and a monetary payoff. There's a hella lot of work involved before the chance of anything remotely like that is there!

See, writing that 100,000 words is just the first piece. You're not done yet. There are revisions and editing of that work to do. Submission and query letters and a synopsis to write. A lot more time and effort must go into that novel before it gets published. I'm fond of saying you have to be just a little bit crazy to be a writer, to commit yourself to all this work and effort with no guarantee at all of any sort of payoff.

*holds up hand* I'm just a little crazy, I admit it. And I couldn't imagine doing anything else. If I won the lottery tomorrow, do you know what would make me happiest about it? I could quit my day job and just write, as much as I wanted, all the time. Sure, that Mercedes would be nice, too, but my Honda runs just fine. ;)

Back to my crit partner, the one who baffled me. I said above that people who love writing and are driven to write 100K books are just a little bit crazy - well, I submit that someone who doesn't love to write, but sits down and crafts/writes/edits/finishes a 100K book anyway has got to be a LOT crazy! I seriously can't imagine. It would be like committing yourself to building an engine when you don't really love cars or engines. Why do it?? Once we had that conversation, my crit partner and I, and I got over my initial shock, I realized what had been bugging me about his novel. It was technically decent - well written, but not gripping. It lacked that life that really good books have, the ones you can't put down because you just have to know what happens next. Maybe that was because he didn't have enough experience yet as a writer. Maybe, if he'd continued writing, his next book would have had that. And maybe it never would, because he didn't love what he was doing. He was going through the motions, giving writing a "try" to see if it would pay off the way painting or sculpture or basket weaving hadn't for him. It's not a point of view I will ever "get", and writing is something I will always do, even if I never get published.

Heck, I have the next three books I want to write all planned out in my head. They will all be a lot of hard work to see realized, and I can't wait to start them. I think we have to be built that way, or we won't survive all the necessary steps needed to succeed. But maybe I'm wrong, and I'm missing some other prespective I don't understand.

Comments

All uses of "you" are generic, of course.

[shadawyn.livejournal.com]

In the same vein, there is also the fallacy that being good at something (in this case, writing) means you should be doing it. I see a lot of writers struggle with the passion part, because they think they must write because they are skilled/talented, not because they want to or love doing it. And they are talented, but they don't have the heart and really would be happier doing something else.

I'm good at math, but I sure don't love doing it ;) Writing is no different.

Also, part of what you are talking about ties into my constant fretting of "going through the motions". You know, that thing where they say you must write every day no matter what and and you must do this and you must do that, and if you follow these twelve steps you'll get published. The trouble is that even if you love writing, if you got caught in the motions, you also may not have the passion the story needs to come alive. That is something I've been struggling with in the last year. I've got some fun stories, but as I reread them, it's easy for me to now see they were "going through the motion" stories. They lack heart or passion, because I was writing them just so I could say I was writing, not because they'd truly captured me and had to be told.

[quiet-rebel.livejournal.com]

I know it's a cliche and stuff, but to me, writing is breathing. I've been writing even before I knew I could get paid for it.

And you're absolutely right about it being hard work. I can't just move on if writing doesn't work out. To me it sounds like that crit partner was just going through the motions, like he knew what formula to do to get to beginning to end, but what he was lacking was that life you mentioned. For a book to really connect with an audience, that reader has to tell the writer LOVED working on that book, that he/she was connected to that world and its characters.

[rhienelleth.livejournal.com]

Cliches become cliches pretty much because they're true. Or have a certain amount of truth in them. I feel the same way about writing and breathing, myself. :D

Yeah, I don't get the "formula" kind of "Start at Step A, end at Step Z" writing. A friend of a friend decided to start writing, and that's what she did - bought a book that said "This is how you write a novel", and then she followed it. I was...I mean I'm all for learning tips and constructive how to stuff from books, but writing is far more organic than it is a twelve step program. I can't imagine writing a novel from the instructions in a book.

[morwen_peredhil]

You come up with an Idea. You write it down. And Lo, you have Book.

Hahahahahaha! NO.

Those people miss a few steps (the ones involving blood, toil, tears, and sweat), and that's all BEFORE you try to get it published.

*twitches*

[rhienelleth.livejournal.com]

Those people miss a few steps (the ones involving blood, toil, tears, and sweat), and that's all BEFORE you try to get it published.

Indeed! Not to mention the copious amounts of coffee and late night writing jags. The writing of more than one novel has led to divorce court, or so I've heard.

Thank goodness my husband is also a writer, and thus, understands. :-D

[mspooh.livejournal.com]

Gah. That's always my fear: to have the ability, but not the heart. I read stuff I wrote back in the day, and think "wow, I used to really love writing." And now that I've been stuck in a different mental state (who knew getting a real job would suck the life out of me?) -- not to mention a massive writer's block that's been kicking my ass for almost a year -- every time I try, I always think, "oh, well, the technique's there, but..." God, I miss the days of writing longhand until my hand cramped, or pounding away at the laptop, or jumping out of bed to jot down some witty line of dialogue that just popped into my head. I used to love starting from the beginning of whatever I had written the day before, then editing it through to where I had stopped, and then adding on; rinse, repeat until completely finished. I definitely think a little bit of that passion died the day I started posting whatever I'd written. After that, it was more like writing for others instead of writing for myself... which I think has contributed to my self-perpetuating writer's block and ennui about writing. Boo. I could use a little crazy right now...

[rhienelleth.livejournal.com]

But see, I don't think the passion goes away once you've got it - it might go on hiatus for awhile, usually due to outside influences. I spent an entire year writing pretty much nothing after experiencing a crushing rejection. I mean, I usually handle rejection fairly well, but this was different. It killed my passion for the project in particular, and even, for awhile, for writing in general. Sure, I could write. But it lacked heart. And forget even thinking about working on THAT project. Ever.

And then one day a new project popped into my head, and before I knew what was happening, I'd written 7,000 words and started a novel. That I eventually finished.

And sure, everyone's different. But I really, truly believe that if you love(d) writing, you will again. Something will spark, the writer's block, or ennui, or depression, will end, and suddenly the passion comes roaring back.

I know the fear of which you speak. I felt sick with it for a year. I scrolled past anything writing related on my f-list because it reminded me too much of how it used to be. And then one day it went away, for no apparent reason. *is still baffled*

{{HUGS}} Pooh. Maybe something among the new crop of Fall shows will give you a big dose of crazy!

[mspooh.livejournal.com]

Hee. That's probably a much better way of thinking about it. Not dead, just on hiatus. *nods* I like that. I remember the sudden spark. That happened with SGA after I, er, went on hiatus after Gilmore Girls. I've been analyzing it a bit, and I think part of it is also a defense mechanism for when I know I'm sorting of falling out of fandom. *coughSGAcough* Maybe it's different with original fic, since you don't have to rely on canon or set characters? But damn if I don't want to go back and finish some of my WIPs. It's just when I try, my writing style even seems different. *sigh*

Here's hoping the new shows bring back the crazy. I really miss those wacky Alias plot bunny years.