WARNING: Some strong language below. Tagging as NSFW just to be safe
You, yes YOU, can be a writer
Few comments online bother me as much as “I'm an aspiring writer”. I say this as a person who once used such terminology about myself. In this day and age, if you truly want to be a writer, you can! If you are reading this, you have internet access and some sort of device able to type stuff. I assume you have a semi-working brain and are literate, so you can string together some sentences.
While I am not “down” with the implied fornication in the song, Kool & the Gang has some good advice for anyone who wants to be a writer:
Wait. Wrong video.
I realize I am preaching to the choir here on Steemit, but I am sending this post out on my social media, so hopefully plenty of non-Steemit users will see it.
Get your back up off the wall!
There are so many platforms out there to publish your writing, such as Amazon, Lulu, Smashwords, & iTunes. Of course there is also Steemit, but I don't need to mention that, do I?
If you have a story burning a hole in your soul, GET IT THE FUCK OUT!!! There is no excuse. Put pen to paper, or finger to keyboard, or use some dictation software. Just do it!
Don't be an aspiring writer. BE A WRITER. Even if you are a shitty writer, that is a million times better than an aspiring writer. If a dingus like me can post short stories on this website, you can too. You can submit to one of a bajillion different short story 'zines.
But, but I'm writing a novel
Then put up a sample chapter on Steemit or your own webzone. Hell, you can write it out chapter by chapter here on Steemit. Get to it!
But, but my writing is bad
Put yourself out there. You will never get good if you don't put something out there to be critiqued or reviewed. In Fahrenheit 451, Professor Faber says the following:
You're afraid of making mistakes. Don't be. Mistakes can be profited by. Man, when I was young I shoved my ignorance in people's faces. They beat me with sticks. By the time I was forty my blunt instrument had been honed to a fine cutting point for me. If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you'll never learn.
While this is not specifically about writing, I not-so-humbly suggest you apply this to your writing. I did. I can point to this website and the writing on it and say that I wrote something. I can point to the PulpRev Sampler. So far, my writing has been published digitally and not in print, but it still has been published.
If you want to leave detailed comments on everything I have written telling me how to be better, do it! Steemit rewards those who leave insightful comments and interesting content. If you put something up
But, but Mr. Daker, I don't want to be a writer
That's fine. I am not saying you must be a writer. But be clear in your intentions.
If I said I was an aspiring boxer, but I didn't go the meat processing plant and beat up innocent sides of beef, would you believe me?
If I said I was an aspiring rapper and I don't constantly beg you to listen to my mixtape (and I have a seemingly endless number of them in my pocket), would you believe me?
Some professions require a lot of investment to be able to do them professionally, like a boxer or rapper. Writing doesn't.
So get down on it!
Picture Credit: "Writing" by Reuben Ingber is licensed under CC by 2.0
This is the sort of reminder that is always timely.
Writers write. Period.
Exactly!
It seems obvious when you read it, but if it really were that obvious it wouldn't need to be said, would it?
I personally was sitting on that wall for a while. Then I realized at some point that I was waiting for some sort of collective "permission" from "actual writers." When I type it, it sounds like utter codswallop, and it is. But the mind will go a long way in its quest to keep you out of perceived danger.
Once I realized that I didn't need anyone's permission, I just wrote, and I posted the product of that writing on here. And it was probably pretty rubbish. But I took the damn step, and that's a big deal, psychologically. I wouldn't ever discourage someone from doing it.
Even if our writing is rubbish, that is okay. That means the only direction we can go is to less-rubbish writing!
If we start at the bottom, we can only go up from there.
That's exactly it. You can't get better if you don't practice, after all.
Haha, great post! I especially appreciate the soundtrack. ;)
This is one of those evergreen things: it's easy to get discouraged, but it can help to remember that if you actually write, you are a writer. That is literally all that is required. Some of us take classes and read technique manuals and analyze the writing of others in depth and participate in workshop groups to hone our pieces, but if you do the first three of those things and never write, you're not really a writer either.
I realize that I am responding to an old post, but this post is awesome and inspirational.