I was browsing the Something Awful forums this morning and happened to see something that connects pretty well (if indirectly) to what I was discussing in my last post. I can only give credit via their name, but forums user Treguna Mekoides said this of being a writer:
It’s sad, because someone misled, either through too much praise or too little oversight, Ms. X and Mr. Y, and they aren’t writing for the right reasons. That’s sad, because I feel like Mr. Y would get more out of being a shock stand-up comedian or Ms. X would get more out of being a “professional cosplayer” or a Renn Faire wench, instead of both toiling at their desks alone for however long they bother with editing before wanting to hit the “I Get Attention Now” button. For one thing, if you’re a bad comedian or a bad wench, at least you get instant, tangible feedback you can’t ignore. For another, you can skip all the “hard work” of writing that try-hard schlock and get right to the attention.
Writing has never been “cool.” It’s sitting alone editing and reediting a scene about hobbits or white elephants or yellow wallpaper while other people you know are having sex or eating good food in happy places. I honestly believe we writers (or copious forum posters) are just a strange group–we have better things to do, but we don’t do them, you know? If Ms. X (or any other amateur writer) feels exhausted from one day of editing her own work, if she feels it’s a horrible burden and tough and not fun or not even a benefit beyond being able to post online about how she was TOTALLY EDITING HER NOVEL, GUISE then she really needs to find another hobby, because writing will only produce frustration for her, because editing IS writing.
I honestly don’t understand where the idea of the “rockstar author” came from. Writers are writers because they’re weird. I’d be lying if I didn’t cop to the fact that, instead of being a precocious little prodigy with something worth saying, I actually started writing as a kid because of obsessive-compulsive behavior and because leg braces made it very hard to socialize normally so I made shit up and wrote it down. I’d say I matured into a rather normal adult with a weird writing habit, but I certainly didn’t take to WRITING IN MY ROOM ALONE ABOUT PEOPLE WHO AREN’T REAL because I had a lot of friends or was happy. It’s not normal behavior.
Whatever marketing agent discovered that if you sell the IDEA of writing and selling boatloads of IP to people who actually kinda-sorta liked Language Arts as a teenager was a genius, because the self-help amateur author industry (via “how to publish” and “how to write” books) is BOOMING.
Pretty interesting and pretty accurate, really. It’s worth considering what and who you’re doing it for.
“Yourself” is the best answer. “Because I have a story to tell” is a good one, too. “Because I don’t want to do anything else” is also very good. “Because I want the money” is not great. “Because I want the fame” is pretty bad. “Because I want the ladies/fellas” is probably a strange one.
Happy 2012!
I write and play music for the same reasons: Because it’s fun, because I have stories to tell (and both songs and prose are mediums through which I can do that) and because I feel like it’s what I was meant to do. It’s what I’m best at. If you have both talent and passion for something, the only logical conclusion is that your path lies in the direction of that thing, or those things.
I do think that most artists are lying to themselves, however, if they say that they’re not creating their art in such a public manner because they want recognition. We all want recognition for our efforts. It’s why writers want to be published, why musicians want to play gigs, why painters want to exhibit their work. We want recognition, and we want to live off our art and our craft. Of course, that’s not the same as doing it for fame or money.
“I’d say I matured into a rather normal adult with a weird writing habit, but I certainly didn’t take to WRITING IN MY ROOM ALONE ABOUT PEOPLE WHO AREN’T REAL because I had a lot of friends or was happy. It’s not normal behavior.”
This is so true! I have never met a ‘normal’ writer. And as everyone I know tells me, I’m certainly not normal. Luckily, my characters think I’m normal, so it all works out in the end. 🙂
I write both stories and music too, mostly because it’s how I relate my feelings to the world. I’ve been in therapy for a while, didn’t have a lot growing up, was ignored by everyone, etc. etc. Lots of pain in my background, which I bottled up and kept inside because I wasn’t allowed to talk about it. So I put it down. The words I write, the notes I play, they’re tied to how I feel somehow.
Which is awesome and kind of sad. But here’s to the atom bomb.