Re: The Writing Game
WILL HOCHMAN (hochman@uscolo.edu)
Tue, 24 Mar 1998 09:59:27 -0700 (MST)
AMEN!
On Tue, 24 Mar 1998, Jon Tveite wrote:
> A few scattershot ideas:
>
> If you want to make a living at it, you will have to (1) be really good,
> like a Toni Morrison, Don DeLillo, or, hmmm, J.D. Salinger, or, (2) find a
> profitable market you are comfortable writing for. If you want to write
> "good literary fiction," one way to pay the rent is to get yourself an MFA
> (Masters of Fine Arts) and become a teacher of writing.
>
> The academic fiction career requires an interesting combination of the two
> strategies, actually: you need a certain amount of skill, but in order to
> get a decent job (not easy to do) you have to play the game just right:
> networking with the right people, winning the right contests, publishing
> in the right journals, etc. Teaching will take time away from your
> writing, of course, and reading thousands of pages by clumsy
> student-writers can leave a person somewhat jaded (refer to Buddy Glass's
> testimony in SEYMOUR: AN INTRODUCTION, for example), but it's not a bad
> life, if you can swing it.
>
> The alternative is to stay free-lance, which can be done if you're willing
> to hustle, shuck, and jive. You've got to be able to keep dozens of balls
> in the air at the same time, become an expert at what kind of writing
> sells where, and live with the fact that you seldom know where your next
> meal is coming from. And, like it or not, you will probably have to find
> a "day job" to support yourself, which will, again, take time away from
> your writing.
>
> I don't think there's any way to know if you're "good enough" to be a
> "real" writer. Getting published and/or paid is not a fair test, because
> most of what gets published is mediocre and anyone who really wants to can
> see their name in print, somewhere, and the writing that makes the *most*
> money is generally lousy, by literary standards (Danielle Steele, Dean
> Koontz, etc.). You might be able to get a decent opinion from someone
> who's written and/or read a lot of the kind of writing you want to do, but
> don't let anyone else make the decision for you: you're the only one who
> can sense what you're capable of. So my best advice is to develop both
> your writing and critical reading skills as much as possible: that way you
> know that if you can respect your *own* writing, other people will
> probably respect it, too.
>
> The main thing is that you have to write because you love the process
> itself. Make sure you're not romanticizing authorship: it's just hard
> work -- nothing romantic about it. Don't do it for ulterior motives, like
> love, money, respect, or the chance to show all those assholes you hated
> in high school how much smarter you are than they are. Do it because you
> love writing. Do it because your favorite book hasn't been written yet,
> and nobody else seems as qualified to write it. Do it because it makes
> you happy, whether any reads it or not. Or don't do it.
>
> Jon
>
>