Too all the born writers. Be nice to your readers and the unborn. If you donโt like a comment on your post, let it slide a couple times. If everyone was a writer it would be a zero sum game.
Not everyone is destined to be a writer, just as not everyone is meant to be a doctor. Yet it doesn't diminish the value of those who enjoy writing but don't have the all-encompassing drive to be professional writers. Thank you for sharing this Michael.
Thanks for sharing, Michael, enjoyed this take. 100% agree. It makes me think of an advanced workshop in my creative writing undergrad... let's say there were 20 students in one workshop, all juniors and seniors -- 20 students who through their time and their money were paying to learn what was being taught... tactics, techniques, "craft."
And today, there are to my knowledge 2 of us still plodding along on the trail toward "the writer's life."
There may be others. And there are no doubt several people in that very workshop who utilize some level of writing in their day jobs.
But a 90% drop-off, I feel, backs up your idea of it being something that people are just born with vs. something that's taught.
Hey Michael, I still have a lot to catch up on your Substack. I read the full article on Jane Friedman and learned you blogged about your intern experience with a literary agent for nine months. Do you have any of those pieces here on Substack?
This is interesting when I think about music students. Practice is an important part of becoming a musician and the drive to do the drill can come at different points in life. I believe in the late bloomer.
Interesting example of the "born, not made" thesis. I wonder if those who are born writers are destined to be "made," as well? By which I mean that one can't summon the hunger if it's not there, but those who are born with it are not going to rest until they make themselves. I think of my friend Carol, who I interviewed recently for my Substack. Her debut story collection took 20 years to write and 10 years to find a publisher. This doesn't mean that she was born fully-formed -- she embraced the long apprenticeship of the writing life and made herself into a writer. But she was born with that "divine instability," as Mikhail Baryshnikov calls it, that wouldn't let her rest without getting more pages behind her and then getting those words right.
Interesting idea. I'm inclined to agree. See a lot of 'writers' online talking about writing but doing very little of it. Or, 'writers' who do write and press-a-button-and-go on Amazombie, without edits, proofreading, etc. Terrible work, unbelievable that they thought it was worth the paper (or even the e-space). I reckon there's a certain drive. An instinct.
I left school without any qualifications, dyslexic and schizophrenic at school in the 80s, with no support. I had no further education, and everything I know is self-taught. I learnt to write age 40, specifically to write fiction. But I'd had the nagging intention to write all my life. Just didn't know how. I always wrote words (but in a poetic form, as I had no idea how to use paragraphs, punctuation, etc.), despite not understanding the mechanics of the language. My stories were unintelligible, until I learnt to use punctuation.
Within a couple of years of learning to write, my books were in bookshops and available on Audible. Publishing success is not necessarily an indication of talent, but my point is, it was always there, lurking behind my dyslexic inability and schizoid obstacles.
Now, I reckon so many think writing has a romantic appeal and kudos of a creativity they don't have at all. They want to write, and there are, of course, many to provide a service to teach the necessary skills, at an expensive price. So, money is passed, an industry is floated and many awful books are written. The industry also feeds an ideology of accepted style, which, along with political ideology, feeds trends in marketable books. Often of which, are also awful.
One thing I love about the โyouโre a writer or youโre notโ thing is that anyone who doesnโt like hearing that can do something about it today. Start writing and reading.
Thanks for sharing this, Michael. I'll click to read the whole article. And kudos on getting on Friedman's blog. I don't know if you are right about writers having to be born or whether they can be made. But I've known in my bones that I'm a writer from a young age, because its the thing I love most to do, where I feel most myself, and when I'm not writing I feel a bit lost, scattered. Writing grounds me, opens me up to things inside I'd never know if I didn't put pen to paper. Helped me see more deeply the world around me. Publishing success has been small and sporadic, but it doesn't dampen my enthusiasm for writing. I hope, like your friend, to be a late bloomer. But whether my love notes to the world are read or not, I will keep on sending them. It's what I am. A writer.
Too all the born writers. Be nice to your readers and the unborn. If you donโt like a comment on your post, let it slide a couple times. If everyone was a writer it would be a zero sum game.
Great essay and thanks for introducing me to Friedman. ๐โ๏ธ
Not everyone is destined to be a writer, just as not everyone is meant to be a doctor. Yet it doesn't diminish the value of those who enjoy writing but don't have the all-encompassing drive to be professional writers. Thank you for sharing this Michael.
Thanks for sharing, Michael, enjoyed this take. 100% agree. It makes me think of an advanced workshop in my creative writing undergrad... let's say there were 20 students in one workshop, all juniors and seniors -- 20 students who through their time and their money were paying to learn what was being taught... tactics, techniques, "craft."
And today, there are to my knowledge 2 of us still plodding along on the trail toward "the writer's life."
There may be others. And there are no doubt several people in that very workshop who utilize some level of writing in their day jobs.
But a 90% drop-off, I feel, backs up your idea of it being something that people are just born with vs. something that's taught.
Ooh, I've been meaning to read McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom! What were your thoughts?
I love this so much! Thank you for publishing this to your Substack.
Hey Michael, I still have a lot to catch up on your Substack. I read the full article on Jane Friedman and learned you blogged about your intern experience with a literary agent for nine months. Do you have any of those pieces here on Substack?
Excellent advice. Great reminders. And inspiring. Much appreciated.
This is interesting when I think about music students. Practice is an important part of becoming a musician and the drive to do the drill can come at different points in life. I believe in the late bloomer.
Interesting example of the "born, not made" thesis. I wonder if those who are born writers are destined to be "made," as well? By which I mean that one can't summon the hunger if it's not there, but those who are born with it are not going to rest until they make themselves. I think of my friend Carol, who I interviewed recently for my Substack. Her debut story collection took 20 years to write and 10 years to find a publisher. This doesn't mean that she was born fully-formed -- she embraced the long apprenticeship of the writing life and made herself into a writer. But she was born with that "divine instability," as Mikhail Baryshnikov calls it, that wouldn't let her rest without getting more pages behind her and then getting those words right.
Interesting idea. I'm inclined to agree. See a lot of 'writers' online talking about writing but doing very little of it. Or, 'writers' who do write and press-a-button-and-go on Amazombie, without edits, proofreading, etc. Terrible work, unbelievable that they thought it was worth the paper (or even the e-space). I reckon there's a certain drive. An instinct.
I left school without any qualifications, dyslexic and schizophrenic at school in the 80s, with no support. I had no further education, and everything I know is self-taught. I learnt to write age 40, specifically to write fiction. But I'd had the nagging intention to write all my life. Just didn't know how. I always wrote words (but in a poetic form, as I had no idea how to use paragraphs, punctuation, etc.), despite not understanding the mechanics of the language. My stories were unintelligible, until I learnt to use punctuation.
Within a couple of years of learning to write, my books were in bookshops and available on Audible. Publishing success is not necessarily an indication of talent, but my point is, it was always there, lurking behind my dyslexic inability and schizoid obstacles.
Now, I reckon so many think writing has a romantic appeal and kudos of a creativity they don't have at all. They want to write, and there are, of course, many to provide a service to teach the necessary skills, at an expensive price. So, money is passed, an industry is floated and many awful books are written. The industry also feeds an ideology of accepted style, which, along with political ideology, feeds trends in marketable books. Often of which, are also awful.
One thing I love about the โyouโre a writer or youโre notโ thing is that anyone who doesnโt like hearing that can do something about it today. Start writing and reading.
Thanks for sharing this, Michael. I'll click to read the whole article. And kudos on getting on Friedman's blog. I don't know if you are right about writers having to be born or whether they can be made. But I've known in my bones that I'm a writer from a young age, because its the thing I love most to do, where I feel most myself, and when I'm not writing I feel a bit lost, scattered. Writing grounds me, opens me up to things inside I'd never know if I didn't put pen to paper. Helped me see more deeply the world around me. Publishing success has been small and sporadic, but it doesn't dampen my enthusiasm for writing. I hope, like your friend, to be a late bloomer. But whether my love notes to the world are read or not, I will keep on sending them. It's what I am. A writer.
Yeah. I think I am a writer. Thanks for sharing this again.