Thoughts on Writing
#25: Bibliophile Heroin
by Seanan McGuire
That's a bit of a brick to the head, isn't it? It probably makes a bit
more sense in context -- at least I hope it makes a bit more sense in
context, or this week's essay is going to be a lot like Seanan Does
Hunter S. Thompson. Here's today's expanded topic:
If you're going to be a writer, you'll be a writer, because if
you're going to be a writer, you'll write. This is not a glamorous
profession. This is not something people do because they want to be
rich and famous and sleep with Hollywood stars. This is something
people do because, at the end of the day, they can't not do it. People
decide to be writers for a lot of reasons. People continue to be
writers because they can't figure out how the hell to quit. Writing is
bibliophile heroin, and we're all addicts over here.
What I find a bit interesting about today's thought is that it's the
first thought where I've actually had someone argue with me. Not in a
bad way, just in a way that made me stop and go 'huh.' Paul -- who
frequently plays guitar for me, and is one of the most tolerant,
reasonable men I know -- said that I don't get to claim that writing
isn't a glamorous profession, because everyone thinks
of writing as glamorous. The children of writers are second only to the
children of firemen and policemen when it comes to looking cool on
Career Day. Teenagers dream of growing up to write. Some of us even
manage it. We don't get paparazzi and cereal endorsements, but we're
seen as glamorous all the same.
That disconnect between vision and reality is a lot of why this thought
exists. Ready to ponder? Fantastic. Let's begin.
Glamor Is In the Eye
of the Beholder.
Paul's right: being a writer is awesome when you're
just looking for something to brag about at parties. If you get to skip
the actual economic and practical facts of the writer's life, being a
writer makes you look smart, makes you seem more interesting to people
who've never met a real live author before, and gives your mother
something to brag about. If you asked my mother, she'd tell you that
being a writer is absolutely glamorous, and by the way, I'm smarter,
prettier, and more talented than anybody else you can name. From the
outside, even the life of a mid-list author can look like something to
be envied -- don't you get to talk to other writers, famous people who
maybe wrote books other people love? Don't you get invited to
conventions, get free admission to media events, and generally control
your own destiny? Sure, the image of the starving writer is always
there, but it tends to be very much like Christian in Moulin
Rouge. The writer, popular culture assures us, only suffers
in hovels because it will improve his art. Not because we're broke, and
would rather buy printer ink than heat.
The practical facts of writing are very different from the perceived
ideal. That's important to know. It's also important to know that the
practical acts of writing are very different from
the perceived ideal. There are people who truly believe that writing --
whether it be a short story, a novel, a blog post, or an essay -- is
like turning on a spigot: we sit down, we decide 'I'm going to write a
New York Times best-seller today,' we flex our fingers, and it happens.
Some get a bit more practical, and liken it to growing an apple. We
plant a seed, wander around living interesting, glamorous lives for a
few months, harvest the fruit from the tree, maybe complain a bit about
editing so that it'll look like we're doing real work, and bam, it's a
book.
As a beginning writer, it can be difficult to get past the idea that
dammit, this is supposed to be all champagne and pixie dust. It doesn't
help that even as you're learning just how much work you've signed
yourself up for, everyone around you is asking when you're going to be
rich and start feeding them a steady diet of caviar milkshakes. There's
a certain element of 'just grit your teeth and do your job' that has to
come into play, especially when you're trying to get a handle on your
own work.
Bibliophile Heroin.
If you look at books on writing, written by writers, you'll find that a
great many of them will include references to starting to tell stories
at an early age, or growing up hungry to be a writer. You'll find quite
a few that refer to coming to writing late, but finding that it quickly
became an all-consuming passion. That's the thing. Books about writing,
when written by writers, bear an uncanny resemblance to books about
living with an addiction. It's something you do because you have no
choice. It's something you do because it has to be done.
People will argue that there's a difference between 'being someone who
writes' and being 'a real writer.' I disagree with these people.
There's a difference between being someone who writes because they feel
the need to write, and someone who writes professionally, but they're
both of them legitimately and validly writers. Do I think that someone
who's been writing a sonnet every day to keep their hand in since they
first read Pamela Dean's Tam Lin should be putting
'writer' on their tax returns? No. But I do think that when we're
talking about the casual, everyday reality of things, that everyone who
feels the burning need to write and keep writing will understand that
'writer' is a word that means more than just 'what it's okay to put on
your business cards.'
Writers write. When writers aren't writing -- either because they can't
(we'll look at writer's block in a moment), or because they're simply
choosing to do something else just now -- they're probably thinking
about writing. I, personally, am basically always thinking about some
form of writing. This has caused me issues; I once had a boyfriend look
deep into my eyes and ask what I was thinking. He didn't look very
happy when I responded with 'I'm pretty sure I can navigate the end of
chapter two if I'm just willing to...' The only time I'm not thinking
about writing is when I actually am writing, and
even then, I'll often get myself through really sticky plot twists by
stopping to consider the sequence that comes after. All writers are
addicts. When they ask us how much we're intending to write, there's
really just one answer:
The whole thing.
Is there a way to kick the addiction? Sure there is. Just tell yourself
how much you suck every day; tell yourself that your talent really
should have gone to someone more deserving; read things by people
who've had longer to practice, and compare yourself with great and
loving care. After that, go watch some reality television. Or, y'know,
do whatever else it is that you want to do instead of writing. Are you
still going to think about working? Yup. Are you still going to sit
around itching with the urge to write? Oh, probably. Every time I've
tried to stop writing, I've wound up sitting there and just making
myself miserable. But you can probably manage to do it. Good luck with
that.
Writer's Blockage.
Everyone gets writer's block. Sometimes your writer's block may last
for literal years. Hell, you could die while you're in the middle of a
decade-long case of writer's block, thus leaving your literary estate
to cobble together your final incredible masterwork from the scribbled
notes you've left on your bedroom wall. In pastel crayon. In Latin.
Because you had writer's block.
I cannot tell you how to cure writer's block. All I can tell you is
that there's a difference between writer's block and kicking your
addiction, and mistaking the one for the other may well lead to a bad
case of accidental sestina. Spare your loved ones. Don't make the
mistake so many have made before you.
Good News, Bad News.
The bad news is that there is no Betty Ford Clinic which treats
literature addiction. ('Biblioholia,' contributes Will, who has seen
writer's addiction in action all evening as I sat here being social,
being chipper, and writing an essay. Truly, my problem is an advanced
one.) There is no AA to which you can go; there are no sponsors; no one
is going to walk you through the twelve step program that leaves you
without the urge to write. Sorry.
The good news is that you can find lots and lots and lots of people who
want to help you be a better addict. Books on writing! Memoirs about
writing! Writer's groups, and people who want to talk about writing,
and essays about writing, and and and and. Yes, you can
be a better addict. Yes, we're glad to help you improve the quality of
your addiction, because when you're a better addict, you're happier to
help us be addicted.
My name is Seanan McGuire, and I'm a writer.
Thank you.
© 2010 Seanan McGuire
Seanan McGuire is an author, poet, and musician who lives in the San Francisco Bay area with two cats and a small army of plush dinosaurs. She has recorded two albums, Stars Fall Home and Red Roses and Dead Things, and has published four novels. In 2010, she was awarded the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in the field of science fiction and fantasy.
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