The dangers of expertise

[sartorias]

Today dancinghorse, who runs the Writers' Camp I enjoyed so much last week, talks about the dangers of the rider who claims to be expert but isn'tShe touches on that brash (sometimes irritating, sometimes insane) sense of over-confidence in other aspects of life

Comments

[paragraphs]

It is nice to see him so successful...he wrote mysteries first and snagged several awards for his Tres Navarre books. I have no reason to read or see his newer work but I've heard the buzz over the movie from friends with kids about that age. They absolutely love it

[sartorias]

I am firm in my conviction that we learn all our lives.

[paragraphs]

I'm firm in my conviction that we MUST keep on learning all our lives!

[365postcards]

I just came to post the "...am I expert at anything? " and it amuses me greatly that you have already posted the only (positive. As there sure are negative ones) answer I have ever found - I am expert on enthusiasm.

There are no results for myself, but sometimes my enthusiasm has spurred on or steadied others to help them reach their goals (leaving me behind to seek new beginners to be enthusiastic with. As I cannot be an equal partner to experts. I can be the starry eyed listener and asker of weird questions for people who are still on the road to became experts on something)

Nipernaadi

[marycatelli]

Then there's the every so expert reader who knows absolutely everything about history and can tell you where you got it all wrong in your world-building.

Thereby demonstrating some impressive gaps in his own knowledge.

[whswhs]

When I was editing the Libertarian Futurist Society's newsletter, I regularly got self-published books sent to me for review, and since then the screening committee for the Best Novel award has gotten two or three a year. With rare exceptions, these books are dreadful. I'll leave out of account the question of whether they're actually libertarian, though some of them aren't, because that's not a literary issue; I'm talking about things like the predictability of the plot, the obviousness and unbelievability of the characterization, the crude style, or the presence of unmotivated ideology dumps. I have read one self-published novel that had some interesting ideas and might have been turned into a good book by a sufficiently demanding editor. Self-publication lets through some basic faults in writing that any commercial publisher would screen out. I don't see self-published work without this particular slant, but I have little doubt that the rest of it is nearly all equally bad

[sartorias]

I think it can be tough for the writer determined to self publish to find a sufficiently demanding editor who has the skill to see the potential in a piece. The instinct is to find a sufficiently admiring editor.

[coneycat]

In the horse world, you run into the problem of the person who's "had horses all my life"--and who apparently hasn't spent five minutes trying to figure out how they think or why they behave as they do. As a result, this person wrecks one horse after another, and probably messes up horses belonging to other people, who assume anyone who's been in horses so long must have some skills

[sartorias]

Yes . . . at our horse lesson, we heard about horse owners whose animals would run away as soon as they saw the owner coming with the bridle. The owner would kvetch about the bad-natured animal, and then get angry when the horse would run UP to someone else, and interact happily with them. Gee, what's wrong with this picture?

With writing, we are always our own best audience. Some choose never to share their stuff, because no one else will like it as much. Nothing wrong with that. But if one wants to reach a readership, then, yeah, it's time to find out how to do that. Talking about how stupid that readership is for not liking the stuff . . . well, maybe it feels good to justify one's own choices.

[coneycat]

There is definitely such a thing as telling stories that are not publishable. I'm not sure the stuff I write is at all commercially viable--I say that as someone who aspires to write very straightforward little mystery stories. I'm not writing over anyone's heads, I just may have chosen a set of characters and situations that will appeal to a small group of readers. I think I'm okay with that, I'm just trying to learn to tell these stories in a way that will not turn off the group of readers I've limited myself to already, assuming they ever get to see the stories

[green_knight]

writing to a small and commercially unviable audience

'Commercially unviable' != 'nonexistent'.

I'm currently writing books that are unlikely to sell unless I learn to write well enough that someone will take a chance on them anyway. This is part choice and part, well, I can't write anything other than a _my kind of book_ so I might as well acknowledge it. Currently the intersection between my taste and what's commercial is not all that great (this also means I find it hard to find books on the shelves and that my favorite writers find it hard to publish _their_ books) and, well, I'm resigned to that.

Within those limitations I'm trying to write as well as I can, because I want people who would like this kind of story to _actually like the story_.

first response--relating to expertise generally

[asakiyume]

Expertise is a tricky thing. When people have spent years, or significant effort, building up familiarity with something, they tend to hate it when someone comes waltzing in and approaches whatever-it-is in a half-assed way. If the person fails, they're frustrated that s/he was so [fill in with negative adjective] as to try without the necessary training, and if the person succeeds, they're often even more frustrated, because it seems unfair. I would not want a parvenu surgeon to attempt to remove my gall bladder, so yeah, in some arenas, I'm pretty sure I always want the person to pay their metaphorical and actual dues and put in the years and effort required. But in other areas, sometimes a little shaking up of what's considered necessary and right and proper can have a a good effect. Sometimes it can return a sense of joy or play. Sometimes it can get people to think about why they do things the way they do, and so on

Re: first response--relating to expertise generally

[sartorias]

Very true. The learning process can be long or short, but I don't think it ever ends.

and the reward of success along the way is rather like lightning strikes--unpredictable.