(no subject)
Repost of something I put on the NaNo forums, after being told repeatedly that 'original work comes from within as a writer, ignore everything else and you'll create original fiction' Or some such crap.
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Any writer can accidentally create something good that becomes popular. I would argue that someone well versed in his/her craft has a much better chance at purposefully creating something meaningful. I would submit Twilight vs Tolkien for your comparison. Both very popular, but I don't think anyone can seriously argue the difference in quality of writing and the crafting of story.
If you think studying the works of those that came before you is useless, and that you should focus inward in the hopes you hit the mysterious X factor, I would humbly invite you to play the lottery as a better use of your time. One person in a billion can intuitively understand physics well enough to change the face of what we think we know about the nature of the universe. The rest of us have to go to school.
Yes, success does involve a wild alchemy of market forces and timing, but your odds are much better if you write something good in the first place. I don't see how having a better understanding of your craft lessens your ability to make something worthwhile.
I seriously don't even know what we are debating any more. I brought up a point that I thought would help illustrate the concept that everyone recycles themes. You are no different. I am no different. But we are all writers, and if we wanted to be mainstream we wouldn't effing be writers would we? We reject the idea what we are like another writer because by god, that would mean we were a plagiarist, and by god plagiarists are evil and the antithesis of a true artist.
You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. The very heritage of a storyteller is to recycle the lessons and stories of our past and make them accessible to a new generation. This is what all the skalds and bards and ballad writers did for thousands of generations; it is what movie makers, writers and pop stars do now. Stand on the shoulders of the giants that came before you and sing your own song, but by god don't have the arrogance to say their work and glories are meaningless to you.
Plot, character, motivation, pacing, timing, vocabulary and the basic ability to string words together in an understandable sentence are the needle and thread of your craft. If you can't even describe to me what they look like, then I'm not going to trust you know how to sew.
You people are the reason I hesitate to tell others I am a writer. The followup question is nearly always, "Really? where are you published?" Published equals success in the eyes of the non-writer, they don't understand that I don't do it for money, I do it because I can't imagine doing anything else. They don't understand that when you dare to assume the title of 'Writer' that you are donning a mantle of responsibility and history that is nearly as old as civilization. The responsibility to entertain, educate, and express the unexpressed emotions within us all. Open your eyes; listen, listen. That is what the writer says, but they don't tell you what you will see and hear. All they can tell you is what they have seen and heard, in their time in this world, a third of it spent in sleep and dreaming.
Look down and see the shoulders you are standing on. Take the tools of the craft they freely offer and learn to use them, to wield them. But don't be thankless, don't tell someone who asks, "How did you create this beautiful thing?" that you did it alone, and in the darkness.
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Any writer can accidentally create something good that becomes popular. I would argue that someone well versed in his/her craft has a much better chance at purposefully creating something meaningful. I would submit Twilight vs Tolkien for your comparison. Both very popular, but I don't think anyone can seriously argue the difference in quality of writing and the crafting of story.
If you think studying the works of those that came before you is useless, and that you should focus inward in the hopes you hit the mysterious X factor, I would humbly invite you to play the lottery as a better use of your time. One person in a billion can intuitively understand physics well enough to change the face of what we think we know about the nature of the universe. The rest of us have to go to school.
Yes, success does involve a wild alchemy of market forces and timing, but your odds are much better if you write something good in the first place. I don't see how having a better understanding of your craft lessens your ability to make something worthwhile.
I seriously don't even know what we are debating any more. I brought up a point that I thought would help illustrate the concept that everyone recycles themes. You are no different. I am no different. But we are all writers, and if we wanted to be mainstream we wouldn't effing be writers would we? We reject the idea what we are like another writer because by god, that would mean we were a plagiarist, and by god plagiarists are evil and the antithesis of a true artist.
You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. The very heritage of a storyteller is to recycle the lessons and stories of our past and make them accessible to a new generation. This is what all the skalds and bards and ballad writers did for thousands of generations; it is what movie makers, writers and pop stars do now. Stand on the shoulders of the giants that came before you and sing your own song, but by god don't have the arrogance to say their work and glories are meaningless to you.
Plot, character, motivation, pacing, timing, vocabulary and the basic ability to string words together in an understandable sentence are the needle and thread of your craft. If you can't even describe to me what they look like, then I'm not going to trust you know how to sew.
You people are the reason I hesitate to tell others I am a writer. The followup question is nearly always, "Really? where are you published?" Published equals success in the eyes of the non-writer, they don't understand that I don't do it for money, I do it because I can't imagine doing anything else. They don't understand that when you dare to assume the title of 'Writer' that you are donning a mantle of responsibility and history that is nearly as old as civilization. The responsibility to entertain, educate, and express the unexpressed emotions within us all. Open your eyes; listen, listen. That is what the writer says, but they don't tell you what you will see and hear. All they can tell you is what they have seen and heard, in their time in this world, a third of it spent in sleep and dreaming.
Look down and see the shoulders you are standing on. Take the tools of the craft they freely offer and learn to use them, to wield them. But don't be thankless, don't tell someone who asks, "How did you create this beautiful thing?" that you did it alone, and in the darkness.