myths about writers

A myth about writers is that they write as a hobby only, and couldn't make it as a "serious" writer. Other myths are that writers are hot-tempered and self-centered. In fact most writers I know are very serious about their writing, quiet, and humble.

certainly NOT mark ... quite the opposite probably ... i delude myself that the odd obliteration helps with other things tho ...

yep that's me baz ... quiet and humble ..

hehe Me too, Ivory.

I must admit that I fell for all the myths once upon a time. I drank copious amounts of Jack Daniels at my desk, became involved in a traumatic relationship etc etc. I was simply miserable and fell asleep at my desk. Pure self-indulgence. The harsh fact is that writing is bloody hard graft and most of us are terrible procrastinators and dreamers. An ivory tower is simply a cold, drafty place with a beautiful, empty view.

If I had time I would be a drunken mad person, but I'm too busy writing at the moment... PS ('attempting to go into teaching'- Mark, are you MAD?!!)

The generalisation about writers is pretty insane. Though i am a drunken mad person.

Yeah I like a drink too.. it helps you brings stuff out of ya. And it helps when I'm playin' in my band, lol and it sounds a lot better. Right i'm off down the OFEE.

I'llhave a bottle of Jack thanks Muzzy

Pick us up 20 Marlboro lights while youre there?

Yeah I need some cigs. Make mine the same as Liana

I spent five months working on my novel, only to find it was my navel. Still, it had good structure...

me and my navel have had some good times, but lately it caught me two-timing it with my shoes, so i fear it may be the end of the affair.

hmmmmm ... as i thought ... good name wolfgirl ... but you are right sometimes it'a nice to indulge the myths ... i particularly like that bit at parties etc. when people ask what you do and when you say "i'm a writer" (trying to keep a straight face) the person who asked takes a step back, evidently thinking - oh dear here is a mad drunken egomaniac ... the thing i DON'T like is when people tell you "you should write a poem about ..... (insert any appalling subject willy nilly) .." as though one is some kind of performing poetry poodle ... woof woof

A brain surgeon, on meeting a writer at a party, said "Hmmm, a writer, eh? When I retire, I was thinking of doing a spot of writing..." "Is that right?" replied the writer, "Well, that's funny. When I retire, I thought I'd try a bit of brain surgery..." 'Tis a true tale that, too

But can you call yourself a writer if you are not published? When does a writer become a writer? If I'm asked what I do - I don't say "I'm a writer' because people then say 'oh really What have you written? " and expect you to reel off the names of your books, bla bla bla. So you admit to doing what it is you do 9 - 5 and then perhaps that writing is your hobby. Now if its only a hobby - then, anyone can do - the brain surgeon can write as ahobby - he might be totally crap at it - but he can still do it and say that he is a writer. My husband takes photos - quite good ones sometimes - but he doesn't want to sell them (although I don't think he would say no to a chance to exhibit!) but he doesn't introduce himself as a photographer. But he considers himself a photpgrapher. He exhibits his photos around the house and gives them away to friends and relatives - people can see them (and pass judgement if they see fit) But no-one can see my writing because its not published - except the short stories I post up on this site - but thats not my real work - my real work are my novels (one complete, one in progress) So I'm an amateur writer - what are the myths around those?

Isn't it amazing that so many closet writers crawl forwards and admit they want to be writers. I'm sorry but you either write or you don't. Inwardly, my response to such people is 'Then F***ing do it'. Of course, ouwardly my kindly British personnae smiles and indulges/encourages them. One universal myth that is true: we ARE selfish. Agree or violently disagree? By the way, I am not called wolfgirl because I have a terribly hairy body; I write for a wolf conservation magazine and I also love wolves. Writers: wild at heart?

Hi Gabrielle We must have been posting at the same time; your post was not up there when I was writing mine. Anyway, you can call yourself a writer because you are actually doing the deed, regardless of whether you are paid huge sums of money or prolific. I actually wrote a fan letter to an author recently (I do that, sad I know) and he told me that all writers know within who they are. After all, if you cannot live without writing; you are one.

Wolgirl : Thanks for the encouragement. But I've just taken time to read your "Asylum Milking Time." and of course, now I realise why I'm not getting published - its because all the writing is done in the asyslum and all the writers, that we call writers are just dumb show. And to think I wanted to be part of that masquerade! Still.. how did they find anyone insane enough to write for Anne widdecombe?

i sometimes run writers workshops for adult ed. etc. and one day was talking to another writing tutor who pointed out how many of the students in the class had the stated aim of publishing their works (one or two had mentioned jeffery archer in a if-he-can-do-it-so-can-i way) ... the tutor then said you don't get this in the painting class ... they dont want to be rembrandt ... interesting point i thought ...

Probably because it would involve being dead... (All the best painters are)

whoooooo curua ..... are you in a light the blue touch paper and retire mood?

It is a true; if Archer's dire prose can get published, there is hope for Gorillas in the Congo. Just give them a typewriter and a great deal of time.... Garbrielle, thanks for reading my piece. I have returned the compliment and read yours too. I would say that you are doing fine! Now take that awful word 'amateur' and never let me hear you use it again! Seriously though, if your aim is to be published, why not try letter pages, fillers etc. There is a huge (profitable, trust me) market out there. It's a thrill to see your stuff in print; it's a little like training for the big race, just doing small sprints. Then you can stop being mythic and start being real. Also, with your husband's photographic expertise, why not team up and write a travel piece? Photos are always an added bonus to an editor. Best of British.

Sorry, didn't mean to sound so abrasive! Just my excessively dry sense of humour.... :-) That, and having to spend a whole Sunday stuck indoors marking... As a more intelligent response: perhaps it is because people associate being a painter with having to go to Art College for four years and study, whilst writing is something you can do anywhere and at your own speed. (And without having to spend 8 hours solid drawing a pile of cardboard boxes- one of the most boring days of my life...)

Can you "learn" writing?

A writer is someone who writes. I write therefore I'm a writer. It's that simple. A dancer I know when she's in between jobs still says she's a dancer. The same goes for wrestlers, dentists, jugglers, poets, chefs, computer programmers, swimming instructors (any like to help me out by thinking up some more professions?)...

Didn't you learn writing at school, Taj, or do you get your mother to write your postings to ABCTales?

i hope so taj otherwise i am out of a job ... seriously tho (rare fishbone moment) ... i think that writing is a craft and that it is possible to learn how to craft the writing you do ... the ways we learn to "write" are varied and some people choose to do it through a formal class and the tutor can help i think in different ways and i have seen students improve technically ... how to edit judiciously for example (vital) .. or how to access ideas ... this doesn't account for the "talent" component other ways i think people learn are through "modeling" i.e. reading other writers and also through getting responses from other people ... which is where something like ABC or a writers' group can be helpful ... because writers get a response to their stuff and can see what works and what doesn't ... so i think i'm saying we can learn techniques to be better writers but it isn't possible to teach people to have the essential "it" which is the core brilliance ... the thing that makes the reader go "oooooooooh"

I wonder if good writing develops in a linear fashion. I've been looking back over my scrapbooks; noticed that early on in my "career" there was a recognisable development from awful to mediocre, but since then there's been many peaks and troughs (although the peaks actually tend to be slightly shallower troughs that stand out a bit). I wonder if anyone else has felt the same. . . . . . *thanx mumy yoor'e a gem*

ivoryfishbone - I have interpreted your comment of the 20th (with the rembrandt point) as a sort of criticism of wanting to be published - all I can say is - if I was a painter damn right I would want to be rembrandt . I don't think its a sin to want to be brilliant. And brilliance deserves being published.I've written things all my life it's only lately that I've become serious about it. I don't really think I'm going to be great ...just a few novels ...perhaps an interview in the local paper...I don't know. Anyway my experience of life is that it isn't what you do - it's who you f****** know. And I know no-one. And today you mention writers groups - now I would love to go to one - but I live in London SE13 - and there is not a writing group around here.Unless anyone out there knows better? I went to Morley College for a while but its a bugger to get to from here.

hi gabrielle i don't feel i was making a criticism of wanting to be published ... i think i was making a point about unrealistic expectation ... the comment was made to me by another tutor and i found it interesting ... i am wondering if it keys into the earlier points made about writing not being seen as a "hobby" ... the majority of people can write (i mean as in the physical act of putting words on paper/screen) and i wonder if the other tutor's point was that because they could do that they then thought they could "write" (as in produce publishable material) ... i am not sure about the painting ... i can't paint (tho i would love to be able to) ... please don't think i was criticising the want to be published ... although i do think it is unrealistic in the case of many people who write ...

p.s. if there is no writers' group near you why not start one ...

Mmmmmmm. Start One. Maybe, Possibly.

If you actually write something, read it, revise it and eventually end up with something you like, then you are a writer. It isn't a question of what you do for a living, it is something that you do. Ivory makes a good point about painters, who are able to paint without wanting to be the best ever - they can appreciate what they produce. Is publication the benchmark for quality ? Well, it is all us writers have, but as we know a large element of publication is chance. Most of the great books had to go to many publishers and it depends on the mood of the person reading your submission on that day. There's a mighty load of crap out there. Maybe it is better to concentrate on doing work that you feel emerged the way you hoped it would when the first idea came. Nothing against publication, I'd love to get some fiction in print, but I'm not sure it is the only purpose of writing.

You live in London, Gabrielle, so it should be easy to find at least 20 fellow scribes! I live in Amsterdam, goddammit, and I've managed to get a very lively writers' group going. I found 2 of them via alt.writing, 3 of them come from ABCTales(!), some were colleagues or neighbours and the rest contacted me through a notice I hung in the American Bookstore. We have most of our contact by email but meet once a month to talk about writing - well, more about life really and stuff like that. Ages range from 22 to 62, incidentally.

I too have read Wolfgirl's stories and thought they were very good; particularly liked the Institute of Delusional Research. I have had to sell up my ivory tower and now live in an ivorybungalow - the lofty view of the world is not as good, but I can spend 20 seconds longer in bed of a morning, because I don't have to walk downstairs.

get out of my bungalow andrew!

writing is the only activity that when i do i'm not thinking that i should be doing something else. somebody said that, i think, and i like it. if you feel the same you're probably going to be a writer. and if you do feel like that then you'll probably have to jack everything in and have a bash at it. there's a lot of space out there for the written word; not just waiting for a publisher to give you the nod. i think that classes of some sort are a good idea. if you don't reevaluate you're dead. and reading other work is absolutely vital. i write just about every day, except for the days when i'm trying to instigate projects which will then pay for me to do the writing for it. and in many ways i see myself like a craftsman; learning how to deal with a particular problem in much the same way that a plumber might have to deal with a tricky shower fitting. and through this i learn about technique; and particularly about composition. and i drink a lot when i'm writing too - not jd but jamesons. and of course you've got to go a bit mad every now and again to blow off all that steam from being on your lonesome.

Then none of us are writers because in fact we can all live without it. A romantic but quite nice thought though it was. In fact some of us would be better off without it. In a lot of cases it encourages morbid introspection and self obsession.

Ooo contentious. I think writing does me some good - it's a way I have off driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. I'm inclined to think that writers who are morbid and self-obsessed might be morbid and self-obsessed no matter what they do. But, on the other hand, writing can be an agonising, isolating experience; then again so can accountancy.

Well noted, Taj. There is definitely a screwy duality here in us all; a masochistic streak because writing can be painful but a strong hedonistic result when it all runs smoothly. Nothing beats it. Monty, you do seem a tad cynical. Everyone likes to contemplate their navels now and again, writers simply look harder and publish the results.

if i could cut out my navel and display it, i would. but would that only leave a slightly larger, more bloody navel??

would that be about the same size and colour as a blood oranj?

Being married with two young boys of 6 and 4 and attempting to go into teaching, writing seems like an unecessary luxury. The fact is, however, I love to and feel like I have to. When I was younger, single and had less responsibilities, I wrote less! Ivory, does Ouzo help `you` write?