Writing is hard
Aug. 27th, 2007 10:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhienellethI 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.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2007-08-27 11:30 pm (UTC)Here's hoping the new shows bring back the crazy. I really miss those wacky Alias plot bunny years.