No,
you don’t have to shut up or stop whatever you are doing, unless you want to be
a serious writer. Writing is an innately contradictory business. I know it
doesn’t look nice if we shut ourselves from the rest of the world for months or
years. Unfortunately, that’s usually how great things are done. But that
doesn’t mean we stay as a loner. Once our work is published, we share our most
intimate feelings with strangers we never know existed, and subject our souls
to their worship or contempt.
If
you don’t believe me, a self-published author, here are quotes from well
established authors.
Writing is a solitary occupation.
Family, friends, and society are the natural enemies of the writer. He must be
alone, uninterrupted, and slightly savage if he is to sustain and complete an
undertaking. ~ Jessamyn West
Imaginative writing has always been
a solitary and indeed a somewhat antisocial activity. Apprenticeship existed,
no doubt, but it was an apprenticeship to books and not to living masters of
the craft. ~ Madison Smartt Bell
Now
with all the convenience and distractions brought to us by the Internet,
socialization can be a quick and yet satisfactory act, or it can be time
consuming, depending on how you treat it. It’s only beneficial to our mental
health to stay connected with friends or strangers, and we all have things to
say and opinions to ask for. Meanwhile, do remember that you do these things
for the sake of your mental health, not for writing. I frequently hear writers
saying how much she/he has learned about writing from a writer’s
forum/community. The truth is, he/she would’ve learned more if the same amount
of time had been spent in writing the current or next book.
To
me, an online critique group is best for work that is far from publishable---for
easily noticeable issues such as too much info dumping in the first chapter,
dialogue rambling on and on, frequent changes of POVs (unless that’s intended,
which is rarely the case). Once it’s past this stage, I don’t know how we could
possibly judge a portion of work without knowing the whole picture. After all,
every writer would write the same story differently, and something that reads
meaningless now may proof its necessity fifty pages later. Needless to say, you
may get completely opposite opinions. The best scenario is that you post
something and everybody says good; your ego is boosted and you feel more
confident continuing your work. You don’t learn anything but … good, if this is
what you need.
If
you can’t decide whether or not to join a community, take a look at its
members. How well are they accomplished? Business people know this rule: we
tend to develop into the same type of people we hang out with. Books are
written, not spoken of. Many writers have a rule of not talking about their
work-in-progress. It’s not because they are afraid that others may steal their
ideas (note: ideas don’t matter; there is no such genius idea with which a
mediocre writer fails to write a mediocre book). To them, talking about
work-in-progress breaks the “magic”.
If
your work is self published, you do all the marking yourself, which takes away
a lot of time. That’s what you have to do, but be aware of the amount of time
and money you spend as well as the payback of each method. The best marketing tool
is to write your next book, and write better. When a new book is launched, both
the title and the author receive maximum attention. Every custom review posted
for a book will affect people’s opinion toward the author and his/her other
books.
We
often say, it’s hard to make a living as a writer. Maybe the truth is we aren’t
that productive yet. I’ll give an example of what I mean by being productive. “Ni
Kuang (born May 30, 1935) is a Hong Kong-based Chinese novelist and
screenwriter, with more than 300 published wuxia and science fiction novels and
more than 400 film scripts.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ni_Kuang)
Some
people say he can write up to 10,000 words a day. I can’t say all of his works
are great, but I read some and am a big fan. Alternatively, he could have spent
his time on forums or Twitter or Facebook. If you are as productive as he is,
you will be able to make a living, be it self-published or not.
Therefore,
it’s time for me to shut up and … write!
