• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Is it wrong for me to be a Writer

Status
Not open for further replies.

Ziggy

Scribe
Of course it's not "wrong".

But I can't imagine why you would want to write a novel if you can't even bring yourself to read one.

Writing inevitably involves reading.
 

myrddin173

Maester
I don't know if any of you have seen the movie Sister Act 2 but here is a very relevant quote from it. (Whoopi Goldberg is talking to a girl who wants to be a singer but the advice she gives is applicable to writing, in fact it is advice for writing that she applied to singing

I know you want to sing. See. I love to sing. Nothing makes me happier. I either wanted to be a singer or the head of the Ice Capades.

Hey. Do you know who the Ice Capades are?

Don't roll your eyes. They were very cool.I went to my mother. Who gave me this book... called Letters To A Young Poet. Rainer Maria Rilke.

He's a fabulous writer. A fellow used to write to him and say:

"I want to be a writer. Please read my stuff."

And Rilke says to this guy:

"Don't ask me about being a writer. lf. When you wake up in the morning. You can think of nothing but writing... then you're a writer."

I'm gonna say the same thing to you. If you wake up in the mornin' and you can't think of anything but singin' first... then you're supposed to be a singer. Girl.

So, when you wake up can you think of nothing but writing?
 
Oh dear, could be worse I suppose - he could want to be a writer based solely on his experiences of playing world of Warcraft!

You don't have to read 100 novels a year to be a writer, but if you don't read a few entire novels how will you know what makes a good novel work. Thats a bit like saying "I want to be a film-maker, I've never watched an entire movie - but I've seen a few trailers so I know how they work".
 

Xanados

Maester
Oh dear, could be worse I suppose - he could want to be a writer based solely on his experiences of playing world of Warcraft!

You don't have to read 100 novels a year to be a writer, but if you don't read a few entire novels how will you know what makes a good novel work. Thats a bit like saying "I want to be a film-maker, I've never watched an entire movie - but I've seen a few trailers so I know how they work".
For a minute I thought this post was aimed at me! (I'm a writer of WoW fan-fiction)

Exactly, Graham. That comes back to my earlier point that you have to study the previous works of your chosen medium. Want to be a film-maker? Watch/study films. Want to be an animator? Watch/study Disney classics/learn the techniques. It's the same for writing.
 
If you want to be a writer, be a writer. You don't need anyone's approval. Just do it. You have a dream. Take that dream and make it a reality. It's all up to you.
 
For a minute I thought this post was aimed at me! (I'm a writer of WoW fan-fiction)

But I know you wouldn't try to be a writer based purely on your experience of WOW - you still needed to know about writing real stories in order to write WOW fan fiction, because in game storeies are different from novel based stories.
 
Is it wrong for me to try to be an author if i've never read a full chapter book? Thanks to the internet and occassionally TV and Movies, i've managed to get a certain amount of information about certain books and the authors that wrote them. I know about the books written by R.L. Stine and J.R.R. Tolkien but i've never actually read them. I have read parts of the Redwall books but i got most of my information about them from either looking online or watching the TV adaptation. Is it wrong to try and be a writer myself?

Look, I admire anyone audacious enough to challange the odds. But speaking from personal experience, reading a novel is nowhere near as demanding as writing one.

Disregarding ability, what makes you think you have the will? What strange confidence drives your heart, I wonder?
 

Weaver

Sage
If reading isn't your thing, at the very least you should reconsider whether it's books that you want to write. What about learning to write screenplays, since you have an interest in movies/TV?

There is more to writing than being able to make up a story. You need the skills for putting that story into words, and the skills for putting those words together well. You're not going to get most of that from a movie adaptation, even a good one.

Movie novelizations tend to be a bit thin in the way of plot and detail, compared to a novel that has been later made into a movie. That's because there is only so much room in a two-hour movie, and if the novel came first, a lot had to be cut or compressed from the original. On the other hand, if the movie came first, there is only so much story there for the person writing the novelization to work with - thus the comparative lack of detail. The point is, if all you know is the screen version of your favorite story, you've missed the richness of the written version, and you haven't seen just how much story normally gets packed into a written work.

That aside, I think it is... dishonest for someone who doesn't like to read to write fiction - or anything else, for that matter.
 

ascanius

Inkling
ok I have not read the entirety of this post however... Yes it is wrong, from what you have divulged it is very wrong. If you have no knowledge, nor willingness to understand 2+2 would you call yourself a mathematician? I cannot explain my abhorrence to you request that I do such. No I can not... however to say you have yet to come upon 2+2 or any "chapter book" in your "musings" is beyond reproach. how would you feel if I called myself an engineer without knowledge of physics or a chemist without knowledge of ,even the most simplest of chemical ideas? To assume one is to assume the other. All I can say Is how dare you, how dare you presume to understand what music is without knowledgef of harmony, nigh melody nor proportions. To presume such ideals are noting but presumptions that you have no right to hold as truth and are foolish to hold otherwise.
Senti, preggiamo che legi qualche libro nella tua vita> I pray that you read, at l least one book, in your life time (Besides the fact that your are missing out upon intellectual gold). And yes I am offended that you would dare call yourself a writer. How dare such person call themselves a sculpture without observing hand to chisel nigh a sculpture. Or painter without ever seeing a painting? having never seen a paingint/sculpture how dare you presume such title. I care not for such assumptions that so called "modern art" ascribe too. Bad writing is bad writing, no matter the facade is it concealed within. Better to comprehend such differences than to presume such errors in self ascribing judgment. In closing I ask you this. How dare you, especially as an intellectual being, can one call themselves a musician without ever hearing music? The chaotic ramblings of discordant and nonsensical notes do not make music, how can you with the self presumption of concordance presume to make anything but shit. Would you ask a surgeon to operate without knowledge the human body? No...Speriamo (I hope), you ask such? to appease your own self righteousness perhaps, but how dare you, all I can say is I pity, ye who are unable to fathom such.
Read... Learn. Be rid of such laziness that ye seem unfit to finish such simple task as the completion of such, and yes in all cases, the very simplest of works. How dare you presume otherwise? save to appease your own miss-guided notions (Yes condemn such arrogant acts without worry nor anguish, save the hope that others understand; with intelligence, what I explain.)
And misguided they are, for a multiple of such arguments I can provide a single that is beyond your simplistic notions. I only hope that I am not the only one that needs such clarification and/or neigh enlightenment (where such cases may be). why should I care if I offend you? Should the master ascribe to the mediocre? Would you ask an athlete of anything less? If so I truly do pity you. Please for something beyond simplistic self appeasing notions ascribe to something greater.
 
Last edited:

JCFarnham

Auror
@weaver and Ascanius: This thread has been idle for a while. In future, before launching into a discussion (heated or otherwise) check first the time stamp on the thread, and then wait a while. Temper a helpful post does not make.
 

Ravana

Istar
This thread should have remained dead. The original question was answered–thoroughly–so addressing it is of minimal value. If you wish to continue a discussion of the topic in general, you are invited to create a new thread. Ideally, in "Writing Questions," where this ought to have been in the first place. I'm not going to bother moving it at this late date, though, because.…

This thread is now closed.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top