Thought of the Day: Words of Power, Words of Wisdom, Words of "Whoa"

[traveller_blues]

Who does the story belong to, once a writer has plied his or her craft and released it to the universe of literate folks? It is the property of the author, and he or she is to be compensated for it if the work is designed to be sold for pay. This is the point of 'writing for a living

Comments

...and before you ask...

[traveller_blues]

No, I will not mention which author or which issue. If I did that? I'd be no better than they are. Suffice to say I am more disappointed than offended, but deeply so at this time.

-Traveller

[shockwave77598]

I bet I know. And like you, I'll not grace him with anymore of my hard-won coin to benefit him and his less than palatable beliefs. While everyone has the right to the same freedom of speech, any entertainer who uses their fame as a soapbox takes a chance with me. At some point I will decide that losing their entertainment is preferable to hearing more of their pablum, and I stop buying their works.

Said writer (who I always thought too wordy) is now in the same loony bin as Cruise and Bono. These are people I wish would just do their jobs, and shut the hell up. Their opinions are not gold plated just because they are successful entertainers, and I get sick of their egos.

Precisely my point.

[traveller_blues]

There's a line after which your hard-won notoriety becomes a responsibility to put up a good public image and weigh your words with the mass (pun intended) marketable appeal that they have. If we can skewer politicians for a single political gaffe under improvisational speech conditions, we as writers ought to be aware that the same thing can happen to us.

In short: you have to worry about what people will think of your writing once you've 'made it'.

-Traveller

[tuftears]

It's an interesting perspective, and I guess I'd think of Harlan Ellison as a good example of someone who actually makes a habit of being mean in writing. People find it entertaining as well, but I think it does take away from the respect they get from their audience - they're less likely to ennoble him as an author overall, than say, Asimov.

Principles matter too. I find that characters of great principles stick in my mind the most, people who stand up against the tide for what they believe in. And I guess I'd be disappointed if I found the author of those characters didn't believe in the same principles they enshrined in their writing.

It must be daunting if you write characters who are better than you could be - you'd be living in your character's shadow.

Sherlock Holmes as the quintessential example? Imagine being challenged with people's puzzlers all the time just because you wrote about a detective with amazing powers of deduction.

Perhaps that's part of it..

[traveller_blues]

I have to admit that we put a little bit of ourselves into our characters, and some of us who ply the craft of writing put a lot into it. And as a communicator, we do need to be true to our own principles in writing or in art, lest we become associated with the words that we write as if they were our own beliefs.

...but that's just the thing, too -- it doesn't clearly come across in said author's writing how -strongly- he believed in the issue I have a contention with.

But on the other side of the coin, when we write for readership, should we not do our utmost not to offend the very readers whose opinion and favor we seek to court? Do we not write for an audience?

Mebbe that's the key there. I landed on said author's blog because I followed a link, and I probably wasn't his intended audience.

-Trav

Re: Perhaps that's part of it..

[tuftears]

Writing is inherently a form of communication, though, in which the writer is able to create feelings in the reader. So if the writer creates a story in which a principle is made to sound favorable, the writer is endorsing that principle, converting people who think it sounds good because of the writer's skills. L. Neil Smith and Spider Robinson are examples of this, their works are pretty much manifestos in which their utopias defeat all comers

I defend my principles, but I also respect those of others.

[traveller_blues]

*chuckles* I can't say I lived in those times, but I'm pretty sure that since we have a number of hate crimes on record from that era, that if you lived in the South and wrote at full openness of words? You would likely draw some serious reprisal from your neighbors. If you wanted to influence without losing your audience, you would have to tone down your writing so that the overall message was sent, rather than being dismissed right up front