A Writer's Life
Everyone who reads this blog has to know that I want to be a writer, right? My big dream is to someday go to a bookstore or a library and see, not only my book on a shelf, but to see someone take it off it's spot on the shelf and start reading it. I think that would be one of the proudest moments of my life.
Today, we're going to talk about the life of a writer or published author as the official title turns out to be.
Now, a lot of different types of people become published authors. David Wong, author of John Dies at the End is an editor of the website cracked.com and started out as a guy working 80 hours a week doing data entry. He never actually wanted to be an author. He just got bored one day and that turned into John Dies at the End. J.K. Rowling was a single mom who had previously worked as Amnesty International. One day the idea of Harry Potter just popped into her head. Stephanie Meyer (insert hissing and booing) was a stay-at-home mom who had considered becoming a lawyer. Of the professional authors out there who, you know, actually make money, only a few that I know of initially set out to be novelists and succeeded. Stephen King is probably the most successful and most prolific.
... But has anyone read Stephen King's body of work or at least watched the movies?
Most of his stuff is about freaky things happening to....
WRITERS!!!
His life is writing and it shows in his books in pretty blatant and unhealthy ways that are actually detrimental to some of his books.
It's all well and good, in my opinion, to make a life of writing. If you can pull it off, then go do it. If I could pull it off, I would do it. Really. I'd quit my job, get a small shack in the woods with an Internet connection and just write and write and write and write.
However... if all you do it write, if you don't live life, if you don't have a job with all its ups and downs... it shows in your writing. It really does... like Stephen King and his endless list of male writer main characters.
Why?
Because it's easiest to make things realistic if you write what you know. Stephen King knows what it's like to write stories and have writer's block and all the other writing problems... and he knows the freaky things in his head... and he knows Maine and Colorado... that's kind of it.
And I'm not saying Stephen King is a bad author. Have any of you read The Stand? That's an awesome book!
But... IT and Dreamcatcher and Tommyknockers and many more have a lot in common. There's a reason why.
It's not a bad thing if you like authors who get into territory where they're beating a dead horse. I mean, the Xanth series by Piers Anthony got repetitive around book eleven or twelve, but I'll still read them because they're fun. However, when your books get repetitive, you need to get new material.
What's the best way to get new material if you write what you know?
Hmmm.....
Well, it's not doing the same damned thing every day, is it?
You have to get out there and live life and have fun! You have to learn more! If you've exhausted the things you currently know in writing and art, then go out and learn something new!
The best thing I could have done last year was go to Connecticut. I had a lot of weird experiences that are now on the list of things I know from a Thelemic Gnostic Mass to Medieval Italian Martial Arts to working at a job that makes you miserable to being more of a fish-out-of-water than usual. I went from just knowing Ohio and Kentucky to knowing Connecticut and antique stores and The Vagina Monologues and all sorts of weird things. Yeah, I ended up going home feeling like I was back at square one, but I was wrong. So wrong in so many ways.
For that reason (amongst many others), I cannot, cannot, cannot wait for my trip to Germany in September. I'm going to learn so much and do so much and I may go days without posting on this blog, but it'll be fun and I'm going to enjoy this ride called life and I'm going to write about it.
I am living the life of a writer, but just because I'm a writer doesn't mean I can't stop trying to be anything and everything else as well. After all, it'll make me a better writer and if I can be better and more interesting than Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, Piers Anthony, David Wong and all those other crazy people I love and love to hate, then it's way worth it.
... though I'll never be as interesting as David Wong... Seriously, I have one thing to say to you if you think I can be as interesting or crazy as him:
"sodomized by a bratwurst poltergeist"
That's all.
LET'S WRITE!!!
Today, we're going to talk about the life of a writer or published author as the official title turns out to be.
Now, a lot of different types of people become published authors. David Wong, author of John Dies at the End is an editor of the website cracked.com and started out as a guy working 80 hours a week doing data entry. He never actually wanted to be an author. He just got bored one day and that turned into John Dies at the End. J.K. Rowling was a single mom who had previously worked as Amnesty International. One day the idea of Harry Potter just popped into her head. Stephanie Meyer (insert hissing and booing) was a stay-at-home mom who had considered becoming a lawyer. Of the professional authors out there who, you know, actually make money, only a few that I know of initially set out to be novelists and succeeded. Stephen King is probably the most successful and most prolific.
... But has anyone read Stephen King's body of work or at least watched the movies?
Most of his stuff is about freaky things happening to....
WRITERS!!!
His life is writing and it shows in his books in pretty blatant and unhealthy ways that are actually detrimental to some of his books.
It's all well and good, in my opinion, to make a life of writing. If you can pull it off, then go do it. If I could pull it off, I would do it. Really. I'd quit my job, get a small shack in the woods with an Internet connection and just write and write and write and write.
However... if all you do it write, if you don't live life, if you don't have a job with all its ups and downs... it shows in your writing. It really does... like Stephen King and his endless list of male writer main characters.
Why?
Because it's easiest to make things realistic if you write what you know. Stephen King knows what it's like to write stories and have writer's block and all the other writing problems... and he knows the freaky things in his head... and he knows Maine and Colorado... that's kind of it.
And I'm not saying Stephen King is a bad author. Have any of you read The Stand? That's an awesome book!
But... IT and Dreamcatcher and Tommyknockers and many more have a lot in common. There's a reason why.
It's not a bad thing if you like authors who get into territory where they're beating a dead horse. I mean, the Xanth series by Piers Anthony got repetitive around book eleven or twelve, but I'll still read them because they're fun. However, when your books get repetitive, you need to get new material.
What's the best way to get new material if you write what you know?
Hmmm.....
Well, it's not doing the same damned thing every day, is it?
You have to get out there and live life and have fun! You have to learn more! If you've exhausted the things you currently know in writing and art, then go out and learn something new!
The best thing I could have done last year was go to Connecticut. I had a lot of weird experiences that are now on the list of things I know from a Thelemic Gnostic Mass to Medieval Italian Martial Arts to working at a job that makes you miserable to being more of a fish-out-of-water than usual. I went from just knowing Ohio and Kentucky to knowing Connecticut and antique stores and The Vagina Monologues and all sorts of weird things. Yeah, I ended up going home feeling like I was back at square one, but I was wrong. So wrong in so many ways.
For that reason (amongst many others), I cannot, cannot, cannot wait for my trip to Germany in September. I'm going to learn so much and do so much and I may go days without posting on this blog, but it'll be fun and I'm going to enjoy this ride called life and I'm going to write about it.
I am living the life of a writer, but just because I'm a writer doesn't mean I can't stop trying to be anything and everything else as well. After all, it'll make me a better writer and if I can be better and more interesting than Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, Piers Anthony, David Wong and all those other crazy people I love and love to hate, then it's way worth it.
... though I'll never be as interesting as David Wong... Seriously, I have one thing to say to you if you think I can be as interesting or crazy as him:
"sodomized by a bratwurst poltergeist"
That's all.
LET'S WRITE!!!
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