Writers and writing
It's 2am, I have a headache, time to make an irrelevant post about a topic I've come to learn I know very little about.
Most people I know on the internet are 'writers' and I know a couple now that are 'Writers' with the big W. The difference between the two? Writers are those quiet people who think a lot, sit behind their keyboards day after day and just keep on writing. Then what they do is they post their stories to places that are not on the internet and get rejected. The stories that get rejected are better than I read on an average day, but then I'm part of their audience and they write the type of thing I like. A short story here and there gets published out of the literal hundreds that they write.
Now 'writers' with the little w don't seem to do this, that's cool if it's your thing, I would consider myself a lower case writer. When I was a kid I wanted to be famous and write for a living, in fact it's been the past five years that I grew out of that, I've also stopped writing as much, but I think that's because a lot of creativity goes into my job. Now some writers have really good ideas, ideas that I will say that I would actually read. However they're so obsessed with their characters instead of the story. There have been a few books where an author has gotten too attached to a character and has given them a bogus ending because they love them too much. Mind you I can name half a hundred characters that would do much better with a lingering death.
I can make a character that would hit the current incarnation of cool (partly thanks to my job) but just putting them in car chases and punching shit up only makes for a good action movie, not a story.
Okay rambley headachey post isn't making much sense so summing up.
If you want to be a Writer:
- Write and try to get published, publishers cannot publish what is hidden on your computer.
- Your characters are only as good as the story they're in.
- Your favourite character is probably too perfect (perfect baddass, perfect lover, perfect asshole, perfect hero) to be interesting, although you do get points if you successfully create a good chessmaster who can pull off a thirty Xanatos pile up.
Most people I know on the internet are 'writers' and I know a couple now that are 'Writers' with the big W. The difference between the two? Writers are those quiet people who think a lot, sit behind their keyboards day after day and just keep on writing. Then what they do is they post their stories to places that are not on the internet and get rejected. The stories that get rejected are better than I read on an average day, but then I'm part of their audience and they write the type of thing I like. A short story here and there gets published out of the literal hundreds that they write.
Now 'writers' with the little w don't seem to do this, that's cool if it's your thing, I would consider myself a lower case writer. When I was a kid I wanted to be famous and write for a living, in fact it's been the past five years that I grew out of that, I've also stopped writing as much, but I think that's because a lot of creativity goes into my job. Now some writers have really good ideas, ideas that I will say that I would actually read. However they're so obsessed with their characters instead of the story. There have been a few books where an author has gotten too attached to a character and has given them a bogus ending because they love them too much. Mind you I can name half a hundred characters that would do much better with a lingering death.
I can make a character that would hit the current incarnation of cool (partly thanks to my job) but just putting them in car chases and punching shit up only makes for a good action movie, not a story.
Okay rambley headachey post isn't making much sense so summing up.
If you want to be a Writer:
- Write and try to get published, publishers cannot publish what is hidden on your computer.
- Your characters are only as good as the story they're in.
- Your favourite character is probably too perfect (perfect baddass, perfect lover, perfect asshole, perfect hero) to be interesting, although you do get points if you successfully create a good chessmaster who can pull off a thirty Xanatos pile up.