what an asshole
OK, HERE'S THAT PEP TALK RANT I THREATENED EARLIER
I'm putting the Pep Talk behind a cut for posterity but I'm also going to c/p the parts that rubbed me the wrong way below below, so you only have to read the whole dribbly thing if you want to.
Writing is the easiest thing in the world. Anyone can do it. It's like hitting a tennis ball against a wall. It's like swimming. Anyone can learn. You don't have to be the best. You don't need to compete in anything. On the other hand, you may aspire to be a celebrated star.
Like swimming, like playing tennis, there are people writing at all levels. If you just want to amuse yourself writing the weekends, just keep on keeping on. If you want to bash out a novel, you need no more advice than to keep on keeping on.
But if you dream of making something original and beautiful and true, if you imagine seeing your book reviewed, or in the window of a book store, you're in the same position as the ambitious swimmer-you've got a lot of training to do, a lot of muscles to build, a lot of habits to start establishing right now, today.
If you know what these good writing habits are, there's nothing more I can give you. Perhaps you know what I'm going to tell you-you have to write regularly, every day. You have to treat this as the single most important part of your life. You do not need anything as fancy as inspiration, just this steady habit of writing regularly even when you're sick or sad or dull. Nothing must stop you, not even your beloved children. If you have kids you do what Toni Morrison did-write in the hours before they wake. If you wish to be a like the champion who swims for four hours every day of the year, you will need extraordinary will. You either have this or you don't, but you won't know unless you try .
Let's say you (quietly, secretly) want to be a genius. Then you must teach yourself to be self-critical. Trust me-your own uncertain opinions are worth one hundred times more than the judgments of your friends. Your friends love you and are may be very smart. But they cannot imagine what you have not yet imagined. So don't show them stuff you fear may not be right.
If you feel at all unhappy with your work, there is a good reason for it. Trust your judgment. Write the draft again, and again. This is the strength you must build-to work alone, in solitude, and write and rewrite and rewrite. Even when you finally succeed in making the original work you wished, you will still live with doubt and uncertainty. All writers learn to live with this. In this way you and I feel exactly the same about our work today.
If you ever read one of my books I hope you'll think it looks so easy. In fact, I wrote those chapters 20 times over, and over, and over, and that if you want to write at a good level, you'll have to do that too.
That is the first half of the good habits you must develop.
Here's the second half.
First, turn off your television. The television is your enemy. It will stop you doing what you wish to do. If you wish to watch TV, you do not want to be a serious writer, which is fine.
But if you do pull that plug you've just created time for that exercise which is going to build up your writing muscles like nothing else. It's called reading. Perhaps you are already reading good books for several hours a day, in which case you don't need me to preach at you. Forgive me. I only mention this because I have met an extraordinary number of beginners who don't think they need to read anything too much.
I don't doubt these people enjoy their writing, and perhaps they will even get to publish something. But you can not play the top game without reading every day. There are so many extraordinary books waiting for you, some writing by living writers, the majority by those a long time dead. This is not because writers used to be better than they are now, but because a lot of generations have come before us and we would be crazy not to know what miracles they achieved.
Some of the great books are about people with lives just like you. Some will have characters you can 'identify' with, but some of the very greatest will tell stories you could never have imagined, were written in languages you cannot speak, and tell the stories of people like none we have ever known.
Now you've killed the TV, you should invest in a very good dictionary.
I know it is a major drag to stop reading and look up a word in a dictionary, but it is less of a drag than continuing to read not knowing what the story really means. No-one wants to do it. I never want to do it, but it is always worth the trouble. In my own case I often write the new word down, not because I am stupid, but because it helps me remember it.
So what books should you read if your greatest aim is to lift your game?
Clearly "Goose Bumps" is not going to help you in your ambitions, but where to start, where to continue the adventure you're already on?
I'd suggest a wonderful new book by Francine Prose, "Reading Like a Writer."
Go buy this now. You may already be a disciplined, talented original writer but you will not be sorry to read this for two hours tomorrow.
-Peter Carey
So...serious question. Did Peter Carey want to come off as a pretentious douchebag in his Nanowrimo Pep Talk? Cause if so, well played, sir!
There is a lot of good advice in this pep talk I won't deny. I think you do need to read if you want to be a writer. And you do need to develop good habits. But the sum of those habits to the author seem to be "always listen to your critical voice, read, and don't watch TV." So okay, here are my beefs:
Let's say you (quietly, secretly) want to be a genius. Then you must teach yourself to be self-critical. Trust me-your own uncertain opinions are worth one hundred times more than the judgments of your friends. Your friends love you and are may be very smart. But they cannot imagine what you have not yet imagined. So don't show them stuff you fear may not be right. If you feel at all unhappy with your work, there is a good reason for it. Trust your judgment.
Uh, no. Some of us ARE overly critical, okay? If I hadn't started sharing my work, I would have never DREAMED I had a chance as a writer. Like, not to say I know for a fact that I do, but just hearing outside opinions has given me a lot of confidence and I think I can now distinguish better between "crap" and "not crap" then I could when it was just me, in a room, rereading my own stories and going "WOW, I SUCK." Although I guess according to Peter Carey I do suck :[
If you ever read one of my books I hope you'll think it looks so easy. In fact, I wrote those chapters 20 times over, and over, and over, and that if you want to write at a good level, you'll have to do that too.
This reeks of "IF I HAVE TO WRITE EVERY CHAPTER 20 TIMES OVER THAN ~*EVERYONE*~ MUST HAVE TO." Some people honestly don't. There's uh...such a thing as over working a story, you know? Especially if you're NOT getting outside feedback...? When I read Bird By Bird I remember the author cursing a friend for always writing great first drafts and how that was JUST FREAKY. I agree it is, but I'm mentioning that to demonstrate that all writers are different and no, to write at a "good level", 20 rewrites is not the magic number. NEXT
First, turn off your television. The television is your enemy. It will stop you doing what you wish to do. If you wish to watch TV, you do not want to be a serious writer, which is fine.
Okay, this is what made me stop reading the first time and go "Fuck you." I unpacked this to mean:
- TV is not a valid creative medium
- No serious writers watch TV (I call bullshit)
- TV writers are not serious writers I guess. Which I suppose also means that movie writers aren't either? YOU'RE NOT A SERIOUS WRITER UNLESS YOU WRITE NOVELS, SON.
- Peter Carey is pretentious as fuck
I can get it if he meant "if you're not reading, use the time you'd spent zoning out in front of Jerry Springer to do so!" But he should have said it like that. To imply that you MUST NOT WATCH TV EVER IF YOU WISH TO BE A WRITER is just bull. I've seen reviews of novels I've really liked comparing the books-favorably!-to certain TV shows. I think we can learn from good TV dialogue and good pacing/plotting. I've certainly found inspiration from TV and movies.
And what is with this need to separate "serious writers" from everyone else in the first place? What's wrong with R.L Stine anyway? He writes books that people enjoy and I find he can be quite funny and surprisingly original. There's a certain beauty in that too, don't you think?
Ugh ugh ugh. I hope this guy doesn't get invited back next year.
Haha, now I want to watch more Criminal Minds. Which goes surprisingly well with the book I'm reading right now-Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite if anyone's curious :)
I'm putting the Pep Talk behind a cut for posterity but I'm also going to c/p the parts that rubbed me the wrong way below below, so you only have to read the whole dribbly thing if you want to.
Writing is the easiest thing in the world. Anyone can do it. It's like hitting a tennis ball against a wall. It's like swimming. Anyone can learn. You don't have to be the best. You don't need to compete in anything. On the other hand, you may aspire to be a celebrated star.
Like swimming, like playing tennis, there are people writing at all levels. If you just want to amuse yourself writing the weekends, just keep on keeping on. If you want to bash out a novel, you need no more advice than to keep on keeping on.
But if you dream of making something original and beautiful and true, if you imagine seeing your book reviewed, or in the window of a book store, you're in the same position as the ambitious swimmer-you've got a lot of training to do, a lot of muscles to build, a lot of habits to start establishing right now, today.
If you know what these good writing habits are, there's nothing more I can give you. Perhaps you know what I'm going to tell you-you have to write regularly, every day. You have to treat this as the single most important part of your life. You do not need anything as fancy as inspiration, just this steady habit of writing regularly even when you're sick or sad or dull. Nothing must stop you, not even your beloved children. If you have kids you do what Toni Morrison did-write in the hours before they wake. If you wish to be a like the champion who swims for four hours every day of the year, you will need extraordinary will. You either have this or you don't, but you won't know unless you try .
Let's say you (quietly, secretly) want to be a genius. Then you must teach yourself to be self-critical. Trust me-your own uncertain opinions are worth one hundred times more than the judgments of your friends. Your friends love you and are may be very smart. But they cannot imagine what you have not yet imagined. So don't show them stuff you fear may not be right.
If you feel at all unhappy with your work, there is a good reason for it. Trust your judgment. Write the draft again, and again. This is the strength you must build-to work alone, in solitude, and write and rewrite and rewrite. Even when you finally succeed in making the original work you wished, you will still live with doubt and uncertainty. All writers learn to live with this. In this way you and I feel exactly the same about our work today.
If you ever read one of my books I hope you'll think it looks so easy. In fact, I wrote those chapters 20 times over, and over, and over, and that if you want to write at a good level, you'll have to do that too.
That is the first half of the good habits you must develop.
Here's the second half.
First, turn off your television. The television is your enemy. It will stop you doing what you wish to do. If you wish to watch TV, you do not want to be a serious writer, which is fine.
But if you do pull that plug you've just created time for that exercise which is going to build up your writing muscles like nothing else. It's called reading. Perhaps you are already reading good books for several hours a day, in which case you don't need me to preach at you. Forgive me. I only mention this because I have met an extraordinary number of beginners who don't think they need to read anything too much.
I don't doubt these people enjoy their writing, and perhaps they will even get to publish something. But you can not play the top game without reading every day. There are so many extraordinary books waiting for you, some writing by living writers, the majority by those a long time dead. This is not because writers used to be better than they are now, but because a lot of generations have come before us and we would be crazy not to know what miracles they achieved.
Some of the great books are about people with lives just like you. Some will have characters you can 'identify' with, but some of the very greatest will tell stories you could never have imagined, were written in languages you cannot speak, and tell the stories of people like none we have ever known.
Now you've killed the TV, you should invest in a very good dictionary.
I know it is a major drag to stop reading and look up a word in a dictionary, but it is less of a drag than continuing to read not knowing what the story really means. No-one wants to do it. I never want to do it, but it is always worth the trouble. In my own case I often write the new word down, not because I am stupid, but because it helps me remember it.
So what books should you read if your greatest aim is to lift your game?
Clearly "Goose Bumps" is not going to help you in your ambitions, but where to start, where to continue the adventure you're already on?
I'd suggest a wonderful new book by Francine Prose, "Reading Like a Writer."
Go buy this now. You may already be a disciplined, talented original writer but you will not be sorry to read this for two hours tomorrow.
-Peter Carey
So...serious question. Did Peter Carey want to come off as a pretentious douchebag in his Nanowrimo Pep Talk? Cause if so, well played, sir!
There is a lot of good advice in this pep talk I won't deny. I think you do need to read if you want to be a writer. And you do need to develop good habits. But the sum of those habits to the author seem to be "always listen to your critical voice, read, and don't watch TV." So okay, here are my beefs:
Let's say you (quietly, secretly) want to be a genius. Then you must teach yourself to be self-critical. Trust me-your own uncertain opinions are worth one hundred times more than the judgments of your friends. Your friends love you and are may be very smart. But they cannot imagine what you have not yet imagined. So don't show them stuff you fear may not be right. If you feel at all unhappy with your work, there is a good reason for it. Trust your judgment.
Uh, no. Some of us ARE overly critical, okay? If I hadn't started sharing my work, I would have never DREAMED I had a chance as a writer. Like, not to say I know for a fact that I do, but just hearing outside opinions has given me a lot of confidence and I think I can now distinguish better between "crap" and "not crap" then I could when it was just me, in a room, rereading my own stories and going "WOW, I SUCK." Although I guess according to Peter Carey I do suck :[
If you ever read one of my books I hope you'll think it looks so easy. In fact, I wrote those chapters 20 times over, and over, and over, and that if you want to write at a good level, you'll have to do that too.
This reeks of "IF I HAVE TO WRITE EVERY CHAPTER 20 TIMES OVER THAN ~*EVERYONE*~ MUST HAVE TO." Some people honestly don't. There's uh...such a thing as over working a story, you know? Especially if you're NOT getting outside feedback...? When I read Bird By Bird I remember the author cursing a friend for always writing great first drafts and how that was JUST FREAKY. I agree it is, but I'm mentioning that to demonstrate that all writers are different and no, to write at a "good level", 20 rewrites is not the magic number. NEXT
First, turn off your television. The television is your enemy. It will stop you doing what you wish to do. If you wish to watch TV, you do not want to be a serious writer, which is fine.
Okay, this is what made me stop reading the first time and go "Fuck you." I unpacked this to mean:
- TV is not a valid creative medium
- No serious writers watch TV (I call bullshit)
- TV writers are not serious writers I guess. Which I suppose also means that movie writers aren't either? YOU'RE NOT A SERIOUS WRITER UNLESS YOU WRITE NOVELS, SON.
- Peter Carey is pretentious as fuck
I can get it if he meant "if you're not reading, use the time you'd spent zoning out in front of Jerry Springer to do so!" But he should have said it like that. To imply that you MUST NOT WATCH TV EVER IF YOU WISH TO BE A WRITER is just bull. I've seen reviews of novels I've really liked comparing the books-favorably!-to certain TV shows. I think we can learn from good TV dialogue and good pacing/plotting. I've certainly found inspiration from TV and movies.
And what is with this need to separate "serious writers" from everyone else in the first place? What's wrong with R.L Stine anyway? He writes books that people enjoy and I find he can be quite funny and surprisingly original. There's a certain beauty in that too, don't you think?
Ugh ugh ugh. I hope this guy doesn't get invited back next year.
Haha, now I want to watch more Criminal Minds. Which goes surprisingly well with the book I'm reading right now-Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite if anyone's curious :)