Why does everyone think writing is so easy?

[DarlingNikki]

In the past few months I have been writing a lot outside of Lit and I think I've improved by a lot. I took a couple of writing workshops and joing a writing group and have finally started to tell people I'm a writer, just to make the idea more real. From the responses I get, it seems that almost everyone considers themself a writer. And they all think it's really easy to churn out a book. Except for the person who told me she's not good a punctuation and that's why she writes poetry.

I can't imagine telling people I was studying construction and having them come back with "Oh, I can build a house." Or "I don't know the difference between nails and screws so I just build boats."

I'm sure it comes easier to some than to others. But where do people get the idea from that it's not work to write something good? Maybe I'm not that great. Maybe I'll never get anywhere. Maybe I'm not a "real" writer. But I still think that attitude is an insult to the great writers out there, even if I'll never be included in that number. Am I the only one who enounters this?

 

[raphy]

Hmm.. I dunno - Maybe I'm lucky. All of my friends who've read my NaNo (smart, educated, intelligent people) have all said many things, but the one thing that they have in common is that they've all said "I don't think i could ever sit down and write a novel." Even if they didn't ultimately like the genre or the style, I have their admiration for the fact that I did it, at least.

Like I said, maybe I'm lucky

 

[Boxlicker101]

I'v never mentioned to anybody what I am doing, except some of my immediate family. If I actually start selling stories, I might mention it but until then, it is just a personal hobby.


http://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=207952MySmut

 

[damppanties]

Nikki,

I have just the opposite reaction from people. I say I write and then they ask what I write. I say stories and poems and they look at me as if I'm from another planet. It's a frequent conversation stopper.

I've stopped mentioning my writing in public.

 

[Guest]

... the person who told me she's not good a punctuation and that's why she writes poetry.

That is amazing to me, you should post that on the poetry forum.

I don't tell anyone I write unless I know them well and that they will appreciate it; has nothing to do with erotica as I write more non-erotica. If I tell the wrong people I write, I get those dumbfounded looks too.

Perdita

 

[DarlingNikki]

Interesting. Maybe I'm telling the wrong people. I wouldn't mind at least a couple of dumbfounded looks. Maybe I'll quit saying it for a while, at least until I get published. I just thought mentioning it would help me take it more seriously and sit down and write as opposed to fantasizing about having written something great.

 

[shereads]

Oh, god. Try doing it for a living, as a copywriter. Every horse's ass who's ever written a postcard to his mom is a writer, when it comes to paying someone else to do it.

I've been asked to estimate freelance jobs with an art director who was being paid $6,000 for the design, and the client balked at $500 for the writing.

The difference is simply that there's a certain amount of mystique to the design and production process, but anybody can fill a space with words. People think, "I can make myself understood when I'm talking; I'll just write it down."

Arggghhhh.... SNARL! >>transforms into werecopywriter and leaps through the open window to go disembowel cheap clients.<<

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Why does everyone think writing is so easy?

DarlingNikki

The reason is simple; writing is easy. Writing something good enough to be published, that's a bitch.

Rumple

 

[TheEarl]

I'm right there with you Nikki. I teel a lot of people that I write, although very rarely what the subject usually is and they all seem to consider themselves frustrated writers, who could quite easily knock out a novel or three if they could be bothered and ask me why I can't just turn my (non-erotic) novella into a full-blown novel. They seem incredulous when I tell them that I'm not sure I'm good enough to write a novel.

The Earl

 

[snooper]

Nikki,

I have just the opposite reaction from people. I say I write and then they ask what I write. I say stories and poems and they look at me as if I'm from another planet. It's a frequent conversation stopper.

I've stopped mentioning my writing in public.

I find it a good way to get rid of bores.

Bore, "I do [thisjob], what do you do?"
Yours Truly "I write books"
Bore "What sort?"
YT "Pornography mostly."
Hasty departure of bore.

 

[Pure]

Hi DN, the Earl, Rumple,

Yes, several writiers have commented on how 'writing' is almost unique as a trade and talent that everyone claims to have. As Rumple says, everyone writes and if they've graduated from HS, they think they can write anything. Some turn up at Literotica.

Further, it's been said, everyone has a least one book in them; the story of their life. For 99.9 % of course there is just the one book, and it would take a lot of extracting, editing, maybe even ghost writing. Then there is no more, since imagination has failed.

Earl: Of course you can write one novel!

You may also see this on a small scale at Lit. There are someone's stories drawn from their past; they're prominent in them, often under what's apparently their real first name. After this, production dries up, and of course the stories are never brought up to pro quality.

Ever see that old gem "10" with Bo Derek? The musician/pursuer, played by Dudley Moore, encounters an amateur piano player and musician (song writer) and it's pretty funny. Lots of people who 'play' will tell musicians they are that.
The analogy isn't perfect, but it's close.

J.

PS: Here's a question: How many of you/us go over and re-draft/ revise a ms more than say, 10 times? Since so few of us, unless unusually experienced and talented can just 'cough up' a quality story and have it 'flow out' in excellent shape, one mark of a writer is this extensive revision, and in fact, 10 is a low number.

Recently I finally did this, actually taking a month to do about 20 drafts. Very instructive, though the results at lit. were not stellar-- one mustn't expect quality to produce praise or even awareness.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Most things are difficult in proportion to how much you care about them, so that’s part of it.

The other part is that probably you’re very sensitive to prose. I know I am, and so writing can be very difficult for me at times. That’s not meant as a boast, and in fact it’s often more of a curse, especially when you get hung up on things that other people don’t even seem to notice. I know that my evaluations and critiques of stories (mine too, not just others’) are harsher and more demanding than most people’s, and that’s too bad, but there doesn’t seemt o be anything I can do about it. Things give me fits in my writing that most other people would let slide, I’m sure. I'll bet that you too see problems in your writing that fly right by most people.

I’m not talking about mechanics, about spelling and punctuation. That stuff is trivial, although a lot of people seem to think that’s the be-all and end-all of learning to write prose.

Writing seems like it should be easy, and I suppose that if you’re a person who hasn’t been exposed to good literature (and I don’t necessarily mean the classics here. I mean good, competent fiction is whatever genre), or who reads rarely, then any sort of words string together will do. It’s a case of not even knowing what you’re missing.

You didn’t say what these other people’s writing was like, whether you thought it was good or not. I’ll be that you find it pretty miserable though.

---dr.M.

 

[Boota]

A lot of people around my hometown know that I have a book coming out and they all seem to be pretty impressed by it. I would say overly impressed by some standards, considering it is self-published, but I can live with that. Most people tell me that they could never write a novel or that they have always wanted to and have never tried it. I did find out that a good friend of mine is shopping a book series to some Christian publishers, and I didn't even know he wrote. LOL. He didn't say anything about it to me until he found out I was writing, too.

I know my drummer always gets pissed off because everyone thinks they can play drums. It might be the same thing. Writing and drumming both must look very easy. Of course once someone gives either a try they find out that it is a lot harder than it looks.

 

[damppanties]

I find it a good way to get rid of bores.

Bore, "I do [thisjob], what do you do?"
Yours Truly "I write books"
Bore "What sort?"
YT "Pornography mostly."
Hasty departure of bore.

If I used that line, my tory would end -

Bore is truly shocked and eventually dies of heart attack after the news sinks in.

Of course, that is also a good way to get rid of bores.

 

[Mhari]

Hmm.. I dunno - Maybe I'm lucky. All of my friends who've read my NaNo (smart, educated, intelligent people) have all said many things, but the one thing that they have in common is that they've all said "I don't think i could ever sit down and write a novel."

WTF, I never said that! But then, maybe I don't count....

For me writing *is* easy. At least, writing fiction is. Having just finished wrestling with 3 dissertation chapters, though...whee, non-fiction be hard!

I think a lot of folks believe that "writing" is just sitting down and throwing some words onto paper. They don't realize that *good* writing takes a lot more into account than just good mechanics and grammar. A good author chooses his words carefully to reflect the mood of a scene. He'll select a pace that fits the scene. He'll have a plot that makes sense. Hell, he'll just have a *plot*.

I'm realizing that my brain isn't up to saying what I really want it to say right now. (Totally brain-fried.) So I'll hush now. But I think it's just a misperception that people who haven't really tried writing have.

Oh, and for anyone who's offended that I used "he" up there...it's a generic term. Really. I'm just too damned lazy to type he/she all the time..

I think I need to go back to bed now.

 

[raphy]

WTF, I never said that! But then, maybe I don't count....

No, you never said that, but you're a writer - Duh

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Nikki,

Everyone thinks writing is easy because most everyone can write. In fact most of us write something every day. Most of us don't paint a picture or sculpt a statue but we all have to write even if it is just a post it note. Writing is mundane and people think that just because they write letters, emails, and grocery lists they can write anything.

Picasso developed a technique for creating art using Linolium. He basically took something mundane and turned it into an art form. Similarly Toulouse Latreck took the lithograph and elevated it from something cheap to an art form. In a very real sense writing is the same. It's a mundane skill until someone with talent and imagination and drive takes it up.

People all think they can write until they sit down and try. Then they usually discover that the could do it, but don't have the time, inclination, whatever. It's pretty easy to say Oh, I could write a story. It's a lot more difficult to actually sit down and write one. Even more difficult is writing one others would want to read.

Think of it like this. In the front yard with my brothers I can catch a football. I can run with one. I can even throw one. People saying oh, I can write is very close to me saying Oh, I could play in the Nation Football League. I have the basic skills, how hard could it be right?

-Colly

 

[Mhari]

Thanks, Colly...that was what I was trying to say, only I haven't the brains for it.

 

[Guest]

Thanks, Colly...that was what I was trying to say, only I haven't the brains for it.

Oh, you do too, you little, uh, whatever.

Perdita

 

[Mhari]

Oh, you do too, you little, uh, whatever.

I'm not sure if I was just complimented or insulted...

 

[Guest]

Mmmhari, I would never inslut, uh, unsult you.

Perdita

 

[Wills]

I confess that I have only had favourable and supportive comments from people. Possibly because most of the people I know are Artists, and only too aware of the process involved in 'ploughing your own furrow'.

Whether I will suceed or not remains to be seen, the pleasure of communicating with others, in similar circumstances, through Lit. is keenly felt. There is a camaraderie, even from published writers, that is lacking in similar fields of artistic endevour.

Artists - fine artists, painters and sculptors and their like - rarely communicate outside of their studio. Theirs is an insular process of creativity on the whole, pursued by driven individuals with a single-minded objective.

I don't know enough about the process of writing to understand whether or not I will take their path but I do know that the AH board has helped me in taking the first steps.

I have reached the point where I don't actually care what anyone else thinks of my ambition, I will write. I cannot conceive of a day passing without writing and each day brings new discovery in the craft of wording a story.

The short story format, previously personally despised, has been a revelation in creativity and in the reading, and writing. I doubt I would have that experience without Lit. and AH.

I have no illusions about my ability or the time that it will take me, I'm lucky being at a time in my life when I can choose the path, I mean to make the most of it, no one will change that, except maybe fifty literary agents in three years time.

Will's

 

[gauchecritic]

A question of view

The people I work/socialise with know that I can write but not that I do write. When they find out, they are generally impressed, but that's part and parcel of being working class I suppose.

"Oh yes, you went to university (college actually) didn't you? What are you doing now?"

"I'm a carer."

You can watch their faces fall from mild interest to sheer disappointment.

I asked my Steward's wife about a piece of research a few weeks ago she asked why I wanted to know. I told her it's for a story I'm writing. She asked if she could read it when it's finished. I told her it was pornography. She said that it didn't matter it's still writing. It's nice to be appreciated.

The moral: You don't mix with the right people Nikki

Gauche

 

[gauchecritic]

Recently I finally did this, actually taking a month to do about 20 drafts. Very instructive, though the results at lit. were not stellar-- one mustn't expect quality to produce praise or even awareness.

Let's have a look Pure, go on, let's see it. Show us.

Gauche

 

[Guest]

Wills and Gauche: your two excerpts are very meaningful to me, and I would hope for others. Thank you.

Perdita