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Two kinds of writers.
Oct. 8th, 2009 09:03 am"A publisher suggests there are two kinds of writers." http://behlerblog.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/hobbyists-and-serious-sts/
Reader beware: this could potentially be offensive, if you find yourself exhibiting traits that put you in the one category and you feel like you ought to be in the other.
That said, this is a very good article and one that I'm saving to keep myself firmly in perspective as I continue in my pursuit of publication. The business of being a writer has to do with a lot more than simply talent and skill at the craft of writing. No matter how profound your talent and skill at the craft of writing are, you're not above that. You can look out across any industry, any trade, and see that. You can be as good as anything - you can be the best in the world - at doing any particular thing. But if you are not a good business person, then you will not be able to make it your business.
Now, this doesn't mean that - as a writer - I need to go off to business school. I don't think I need to know everything there is to know about marketing, promotion, etc and etc. But I do need to know how they apply to what I want for my own success, how to find them, and how to be a tool for them in the hands of people whose direct business it is (editors, agents, etc). Feeling above the process is only a method of standing in my own way. I intend to avoid that as much as possible.
Part of being a 'serious' writer, and I'd daresay a good writer, frankly, has to do with being able to exercise a certain degree of humility. Much as we'd like to hole up, unwashed and unshaven with our typewriters and coffee, to be alone with our work, this is not a hermit's craft, and in this day and age the industry requires a great deal of interaction and networking. A degree of humility goes a really long way in relationships of any kind, with any body (though god knows nobody manages an appropriate degree of humility all the time - but it's something to shoot for). This extends not only to taking yourself 'too seriously' and thinking that you exist outside the lines drawn for mere mortals, but also being able to receive and work with critique, even being able to edit your own work without external feedback. Critical, I say! Some people tell you that 'revision' and 'rewriting' and 'editing' is actually useless nonsense designed to keep the new writer down, but I think that's mumbo jumbo. I'm a fan of editing.
Just... try to stay out of your own way. There's such a thing as overdoing it; all of it. Confidence, humility, adjectives...
Reader beware: this could potentially be offensive, if you find yourself exhibiting traits that put you in the one category and you feel like you ought to be in the other.
That said, this is a very good article and one that I'm saving to keep myself firmly in perspective as I continue in my pursuit of publication. The business of being a writer has to do with a lot more than simply talent and skill at the craft of writing. No matter how profound your talent and skill at the craft of writing are, you're not above that. You can look out across any industry, any trade, and see that. You can be as good as anything - you can be the best in the world - at doing any particular thing. But if you are not a good business person, then you will not be able to make it your business.
Now, this doesn't mean that - as a writer - I need to go off to business school. I don't think I need to know everything there is to know about marketing, promotion, etc and etc. But I do need to know how they apply to what I want for my own success, how to find them, and how to be a tool for them in the hands of people whose direct business it is (editors, agents, etc). Feeling above the process is only a method of standing in my own way. I intend to avoid that as much as possible.
Part of being a 'serious' writer, and I'd daresay a good writer, frankly, has to do with being able to exercise a certain degree of humility. Much as we'd like to hole up, unwashed and unshaven with our typewriters and coffee, to be alone with our work, this is not a hermit's craft, and in this day and age the industry requires a great deal of interaction and networking. A degree of humility goes a really long way in relationships of any kind, with any body (though god knows nobody manages an appropriate degree of humility all the time - but it's something to shoot for). This extends not only to taking yourself 'too seriously' and thinking that you exist outside the lines drawn for mere mortals, but also being able to receive and work with critique, even being able to edit your own work without external feedback. Critical, I say! Some people tell you that 'revision' and 'rewriting' and 'editing' is actually useless nonsense designed to keep the new writer down, but I think that's mumbo jumbo. I'm a fan of editing.
Just... try to stay out of your own way. There's such a thing as overdoing it; all of it. Confidence, humility, adjectives...