Tuesday, March 29, 2005
About Writing
There's not much discussion about the craft of writing in Daria fandom, not even in the "Creative Writing" section at PPMB. I thought that this place would be as appropriate as anywhere else to post these thoughts which were stolen from the political blog commentator known as "driftglass":
Writing's weird.
You have to Not Care, even though you do.
You have to take "rejection" -- whatever the hell it means -- as the baseline, default position the world will offer you.
You have to know that 99.9% of everything you write will probably end up badly, blown off or forgotten.
Harlan Ellison said something about an Author being someone who gets his name on the spines of novels. A Writer, OTOH, is the poor fuck that can't help himself/herself.
A writer is a writer because they have no choice.
I kid friends that the reason that so many writers have traditionally been Men is that you have to be able to withstand being rebuffed with a chainsaw over and over and over again and still stand get right up and go charging back into the whirling blades singing "Bohemian Rhapsody."
So basically it's Dating, without the occasional Happy Ending…and a writer is a Stalker who can't be kept away from a blank page with mace and a Restraining Order.
Pity us :)
....
But I’d put it a different way: Writers write for Readers. If you don't, you're jerking off into a drawer.
Yes, yes, a writers needs to heed the Muse and please themselves and so forth, but the minute you Publish, you are announcing to the world as arrogantly as any Young God that what you are saying is worth listening to. Which is what makes writing so odd: you have to have this fundamentally egomaniacal ideal that People Should Read your work, and simultaneously, and sincerely, not care (much) whether or not anyone reads it or does anything with it.
The way to at least marginally feed both beasts is to work reeeeally hard at writing things that are, y'know, interesting, and quit pouting, 'cause here's today's Hot Yoda News Flash: Life. Fair It Isn't. Bitch It Is.
# posted by James @ 2:57 PM 
