(Untitled)

[apiphile]

So far today I've not been able to bring lunch and the train got stuck in a tunnel (so I went on reading The Island of Dr Moreau and ignored it), my insides have fallen out, I've edited a couple of other people's draft posts on Faschionism, and my knees already make me wish I wasn't bipedal

Comments

[swear_jar]

I like the conclusion that you should go full Lawrence on it.

[apiphile]

That's my response to anything, sooner or later.

[sparrowpunk]

At risk of making you feel weird, you've been one of my favourite authors since Pass the Parcel. But I am probably not the sort of fan anyone wants :P

[apiphile]

What, enthusiastic and vocal and likely to push the book on more people? Fuck yeah you are.

[a_carnal_mink]

Go full Lawrence on it

This, this is brilliant. In every and all ways.

[apiphile]

"Fuck imaginary David Wong and go full Lawrence on it" is my new motto.

[wolfy_writing]

David Wong's How To Life articles have a talent for sending me into a tailspin of insecurity. I'm trying to get myself to skip all of the How To Life articles on Cracked, because all of them provoke various shades of emo, but I have nagging completionist tendencies and tend to go "If it's on there, I should read it in case I like it!", which is never true.

I think there's something for getting yourself off the "I must be of X standard, or this is all a waste of time" hook in a way that allows you to keep going, and the details of how don't matter all that much. If "I'll never be that good, I'll write anyway" is what works, fuck what imaginary David Wong says about it. (And, should he express an opinion on this specific point, fuck what real David Wong says.)

You're my favorite poet. Does that count for anything? (Your stories are also really good.)

Totally go full Lawrence if that works for you!

[apiphile]

I really need to start ignoring those articles because they piss me the fuck off; either it's David Wong going "EVERYTHING CAN BE OVERCOME YOU LAZY SHIT" or John Cheese saying something reasonable and then my friends immediately tearing it apart on Twitter.

You're my favorite poet.

Up against some stiff competition, no doubt. ;)

[wolfy_writing]

I think it's the generic advice problem again. You can't be all "Dear everyone, here's how to pull your life together!" without getting things really wrong for some people because you don't understand their circumstances.

You bumped T.S. Eliot down to the number two position, so it's not too shabby.

[apiphile]

Yeah, people need to maybe explain where they're targeting their advice.

AAAAAH. ELIOT. MY NEMESIS.

[coniferous_you]

Yeah, I get these feelings of inadequacy too. All I do to deal with them is read a book or two in my genre. I find that usually helps. When you see that the structure or tone or whatever it is you feel makes you an amateur isn't all that far off from what's out there, it helps. Because it's not like these are rational assertions.

[apiphile]

I think the problem I have is that everyone else seems to be better, or I read them and they're not better and think "well these people are published and no one will publish me, maybe I am a lot worse than I thought".

[coniferous_you]

Yeah, I know what you mean. And there certainly are some books in any given genre that are just objectively better. But a lot are worse too.

The problem is that the books that are published are aggressively commercial. Often, it is the writer who writes for a "market" rather than an "audience" who gets the nibble. Some basic ability to put together sentences is required, but ultimately that seems to be it. In the books that are published (at least in the genres that I read, not counting CanLit where the standards are much different), there's always the sense of singular (some might say myopic) tightness around the hook.

A lot of the fun stuff you might see in first drafts (e.g., plays with perspective) gets shredded and burned until all that's left is the heavily marketable essence.

Some might say you wouldn't be a good writer if you weren't asking this question.

[apiphile]

I think everyone, good or bad, must have doubts about their quality... which means some of our doubts must be valid.