Ah, flame wars...
Someone posted on the LCFicMBs asking about the Merriweather awards. I remembered them as being frustrating and asuspicious, and then disappearing entirely. Morbid curiosity made me reread the relevant threads (namely this one and this one).
Now, instead of being frustrating, I found they cracked me up immensely. Ah, flame wars...
I did find myself saying this, which I think is still how I feel today and touches on one of my big pet peeves among writers (the "I'm a creative writing major so I know what I'm talking about!" syndrome):
I've been writing my whole life. When I was a very small child, I had a tape recorder to narrate stories into because I couldn't write/type yet. Whatever else I may be, I've always considered myself a writer.
However, I'm not a creative writing major. When I started applying to colleges, I took a good look at myself and decided that it was important to have a skill/career where I thought I could support myself and any family I might have. Given my habit to start a lot of stories and finish very few of them, writing didn't seem like a logical choice.
So I majored in something else. Do I think that makes me less of a writer? Absolutely not. Does it make my opinion on writing less valid? Absolutely not.
Does being published make my opinion more valid? Fine. Been there, done that. But I've met plenty of published authors whose opinions didn't mean much to me, either. At the end of the day, being published just means that you convinced someone who has enough money to put out a publication that your work is worthy of publishing. And hey, there are plenty of people with money whose opinions I don't value {g}.
Does reading old flamewars and laughing make me a mean person? {g}
Now, instead of being frustrating, I found they cracked me up immensely. Ah, flame wars...
I did find myself saying this, which I think is still how I feel today and touches on one of my big pet peeves among writers (the "I'm a creative writing major so I know what I'm talking about!" syndrome):
I've been writing my whole life. When I was a very small child, I had a tape recorder to narrate stories into because I couldn't write/type yet. Whatever else I may be, I've always considered myself a writer.
However, I'm not a creative writing major. When I started applying to colleges, I took a good look at myself and decided that it was important to have a skill/career where I thought I could support myself and any family I might have. Given my habit to start a lot of stories and finish very few of them, writing didn't seem like a logical choice.
So I majored in something else. Do I think that makes me less of a writer? Absolutely not. Does it make my opinion on writing less valid? Absolutely not.
Does being published make my opinion more valid? Fine. Been there, done that. But I've met plenty of published authors whose opinions didn't mean much to me, either. At the end of the day, being published just means that you convinced someone who has enough money to put out a publication that your work is worthy of publishing. And hey, there are plenty of people with money whose opinions I don't value {g}.
Does reading old flamewars and laughing make me a mean person? {g}