It’s always interesting to me to observe how certain topics reach critical mass. In this particular case, I’m just glad everybody’s talkin’. At last. “About an issue,” industry journalist Porter Anderson says in a late December article he titled Keeping Watch Over Our Schlock, “a lot of us hesitate to address head-on.”
He’s referring to the quality of the writing we’re seeing coming out of (ahem) “digitally enabled content abundance.” And he’s reacting in solidarity to this blistering indictment by writer Baldur Bjarnason:
One of the consequences of anybody being able to publish is that everybody can publish … The biggest beneficiaries of open, free, and equitable access to publishing tools will never be skilled writers, readers with taste, or anybody who sells a quality good, but the purveyors of mass-manufactured schlock and buyers who either don’t mind it, or can’t tell the difference.
The very same week, literary agent Chip MacGregor, coming at it from a different angle, said something similar:
The majority of stuff I see from newer authors isn’t turned down because the writer is new; it’s turned down because the writing isn’t all that great. … Don’t assume you’re a genius just because your mom (or spouse, or best friend, or priest) told you so. Get some professional opinions, listen to others, and become a better writer.
That’s pretty plain, don’t you think?
I’ve been writing about this topic for two years now (this was my first, followed by this post, this one, this too, then this, this, this, this, and that one). So I feel like saying Oh, you’re just now noticing this? when best-selling author James Scott Bell (love him), in a post he calls Publishing and Marketing Your Crap, says:
So “quality” (an amorphous thing like obscenity, which one Supreme Court justice defined as “I know it when I see it”) is definitely something the indie writer ought to pursue if he or she really wants to increase the odds of making real bank at this game. It’s not just about numbers. My “formula” is quality + production + time. How does one add “quality” to the writing? Study the freaking craft.
Notice he includes time in his formula. There are no shortcuts, kids. Remember the 10,000-Hour Rule? Bjarnason says, “It’s a slow-going task, full of hard work and few rewards, but it’s the only sustainable tactic in a market that is increasingly dominated by randomness.”
The very same week, Penelope Trunk wrote about “rules about creativity that are gaining traction.” And she came to the same conclusion:
So the truth is that the way to be known for your creativity is to work really hard at being creative. That’s the bad news. Because everything worth aiming for is hard work …
Well, yes. Exactly.
I had an interesting conversation with the Boy when he was home over the holiday about what it takes to be a professional in one’s field. He is a working musician, a performer and a music educator. It looks like a great gig from the outside—his students think he’s living the high life. They tell him they want his job. He says,* “I tell them what they have to do to get there—but they’re not interested.” They’re not interested in stories about the long hours in the practice room; that’s no fun. They’d rather spend Christmas with friends and family, but the Boy had three performances in the twenty-four hours between noon on Christmas Eve and noon on Christmas Day. Did someone say something about hard work?
Again, it fascinates me that all of this is swirling up on the interwebs, but these are worrisome times and writers know the catharsis that can be achieved by working things out on a keyboard. Me, I hew to something a good boss (you again, Wayne-O) told me long ago: just do good work.
Just do good work.
* He also blogs—and about this subject too.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
10 Comments
Working, working, working. I’m on it!
And I appreciate your comments, and Jim Bell’s as well, about seeking quality even as the shlock overwhelms . . .
Amen to that.
Jamie, I have a question for you. It may be a little off topic, I admit, but I like your advice and I don’t know who else to turn to right now. My writing is suffering because I can’t stand a single sentence I produce. I know I can’t be objective, but I think my writing stinks. So when I sit down to write my resistance flares and I end up playing Angry Birds all night or sitting in front of the TV. It has gotten so bad I’ve even considered giving up writing entirely to not have to deal with the frustration. Writing is hard work, I know, and I don’t mind hard work, but this I don’t know what to do with. Any help would be greatly appreciated…
Matthew —
Two things spring to mind.
First, I’m a strong believer in taking a break if you’re not feeling it (whatever your “it” is). When I was younger I used to beat myself up for wanting, desperately, to lie on the couch with a book (when I really needed to clean the house, work on this or that, run to the grocery store, etc ad nauseam). I understand now that if I get to that point, the single most productive thing I can do is lie on the couch with the book.
Second, I think you are listening to what Julia Cameron* calls your “enemy within.” All creatives have one. You have to learn to not listen.
*Julia Cameron wrote “The Artist’s Way,” and I can’t recommend it enough. I blogged about it 2 years ago (http://www.jamiechavez.com/blog/permalink/2010/06/on-inspiration/) so I won’t repeat that information here. But I would encourage you to read it, do the exercises, and most importantly commit to doing Morning Pages and Artist Dates. My desperate impulse to lie on the couch with the book was an early version of an Artist Date. And Morning Pages will help you banish the naysayer within.
I would be very interested to see you blog the process. Just sayin’. :)
Thank you so much Jamie!
It definitely is the “enemy within.” I’d thought I learned to ignore it, but here lately it has been worse than ever.
I know of “The Artist’s Way” as I saw it on bookstore shelves many years ago, but I never picked it up. I will have to look into ordering it now. I’ll also check out your blog post regarding the book, find out what the Morning Pages is, and, possibly, blog about the whole process.
You are spot on about the importance of good sleep, and I have to say that my sleep has been better than usual in the last week.
I think maybe what I’ve done is turned writing into a chore. As in I have to sit down and write a post for my blog every day (I was posting seven days a week)…so I guess its time for an Artist Date.
Again, Jamie, thank you for the advice. And thank you for this blog.
One more thing: there’s absolutely no substitute for a good night’s sleep. And not just one night, but night after night after night of good sleep. :)
I listen to Neil Gaiman’s address at the 2012 University of the Arts graduating class. A LOT. :)
His closing statement is “Make good art.”
I love that.
Oh! Me too! :)
Ah yes, but… what is good? And who defines “good”? And how long do we wait before we hear from those people before we share our work with the world?
As Bell says above, quality is amorphous, unclassifiable. It’s subjective (beauty being in the eye of the beholder and all that). Still, there are culturally accepted norms of good, beginning with things like good grammar, correct spelling, elimination of typos, and going on to things that encompass storytelling itself (in the case of fiction). The writing craft.
Bell says study the craft, MacGregor says get some professional opinion/help. I think folks who are attempting to do good work probably do these things; few people accomplish greatness without the help of others, however that manifests. We had teachers, colleagues, collaborators, mentors. Bosses who told us to do good work. :)
My former boss wasn’t defining it (although he was modeling it). But I instinctively headed in the direction of “good,” I think. I am always seeking to hear the “still, small voice,” which seems to be, for me, a hint. Am I doing my very best?
Anyway, I’ve blogged about definitions before, but this post was more about my having been struck by the similarity of what was being said in a short period of time by some folks I read regularly. People are talking, and I love that. :)