{"id":10646,"date":"2023-10-03T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=10646"},"modified":"2023-10-02T16:35:10","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T20:35:10","slug":"myths-about-writers-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=10646","title":{"rendered":"Myths about Writers & Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A few months ago, Emily Harstone wrote an entertaining post \u201c14 Myths about Writers\u201d for Authors Publish<\/a>. \u201cFalse assumptions, clich\u00e9s, and myths\u201d abound when it comes to the writing profession. The half-empty glass of bourbon on the desk, a pall of cigarette smoke. How many of these myths do you believe? Here are some of my favorites t:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The Muse \u2013 Although sometimes a writer is suddenly struck by a great idea, bringing it into reality (words on the page) doesn\u2019t happen solely by inspiration. She quotes Pablo Picasso, \u201cInspiration exists, but it has to find you working.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. The Day Job Is the Enemy \u2013 yes, a job can take time away from the writing (as well as put food on the table), but it also exposes how people relate to each other, what the dynamics of a workplace are, and maybe even immerses the writer with content background that feeds the writing. Alafair Burke writes compelling courtroom dramas because she is a former Deputy District Attorney and teaches criminal law and procedure. Work experience informed the office environment for my suspense novel Architect of Courage<\/a><\/em>, and readers who know the world of architecture found the interactions completely believable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Writers are eccentric. Harstone says people believe writers \u201ccan say strange things and get away with it.\u201d I actually have never gotten away with it. My family makes sure of that. Writers aren\u2019t hermits, either, though sometimes when cranking away at a particularly troublesome juncture in a work-in-progress, we may shut the office door and put the phone on mute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Writers have perfect grammar and never make mistakes. One read of a contemporary novel published by an editor-free small press will disabuse you of that idea. Even bigger publishers, sometimes. A thriller I read last year, published by a company claiming six editorial staff, was burdened by careless phrases like \u201cabout him and I.\u201d Shudder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. \u201cEveryone has a story, they just have to get it out.\u201d Harstone says this is one of the most enduring of the myths. It isn\u2019t just telling the story, it\u2019s doing it well. Learning how to write takes time. I\u2019d always done a lot of writing on-the-job, but I was writing fact-based reports and policy papers. When I started writing fiction seriously, I had to learn to write all over again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Writers don\u2019t \u201cjust make it up.\u201d This isn\u2019t in Harstone\u2019s list, but I hear it a lot. It\u2019s as if the author has total freedom. So not true. A story has to seem real to readers; characters must act believably (note: not \u201crationally\u201d); plots have to make sense; descriptions of places and actions have to make sense; and it all has to fit together to fulfill the story\u2019s purpose. Even fantasy and science fiction, in which the author is dealing with a completely unfamiliar world, actions and descriptions follow an internally consistent path. \u201cWorld-building<\/a>\u201d it\u2019s called, and it\u2019s a lot of work!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, apropos of the photo at the top of this post, it reminded me of a favorite line from Marge Piercy\u2019s poem, \u201cIn Praise of Joe<\/a>\u201d: \u201cAll my books are written with your ink.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few months ago, Emily Harstone wrote an entertaining post \u201c14 Myths about Writers\u201d for Authors Publish. \u201cFalse assumptions, clich\u00e9s, and myths\u201d abound when it comes to the writing profession. The half-empty glass of bourbon on the desk, a pall … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"There's a mythology about the writing life that authors hear about all the time. Any of these myths sound familiar?","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[174,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-draft-blog","category-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2LI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10646"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10648,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10646\/revisions\/10648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}