Let me pop that bubble for you
I’m a writer. I don’t say that with a trill in my voice or with a fluttering wave of my hand, as though what I do is something magical or lofty. It isn’t. I get an idea, I put one word down after another on a piece of paper (or, really, on my monitor, who am I foolin’?), and hopefully at some point it ends and I have an entertaining tale to tell. I’m not curing cancer or protecting innocents. I don’t have airs about what I do.
I say all that because one thing that bothers is when other writers try to make the craft out to be something it isn’t. I’ll hear them say things like, “I listen to my characters and they tell me… blah blah blah.” In an of itself, that sentence isn’t particularly egregious, but it’s always the way it’s said that annoys me.When they say “characters” it’s as though they’re talking about people outside their head that they’re channeling through some strange subspace astral portal that only they have access to. They say the word “character” and you can see the mysticism in their eyes like fairy lights from faraway realms that have opened up and poured secret knowledge into them. They speak about writing like it’s a sacred act between them and some ancient god, with their voices light and their head at a poetic tilt. To hear them tell it, they’re sorcerers shooting brave new worlds from every finger, Artists with a glowing capital A.
To them I say “Pah.” Writing isn’t sacred – it’s work. It’s wonderful work, invigorating work, and occasionally even revelatory work, but it’s still one word after another. Characters aren’t spirits from the other side or beings from an alternate dimension whispering wonders to us. They are us. They are in our heads, made by us, doing what we tell them. Perhaps some people need that quasi-spiritual outlook on it to maintain their interest or motivation, but I think it’s needless claptrap that really only gets in the way. Writers are craftspeople, like carpenters. They use wood to make something new and hopefully pleasing, and we use words. Simple as that. Make more out of it if you must, but know that I think it only makes you look foolish. Me, I respect those who put their shoulders to the plow/keyboard and work.
Anyway, thanks for letting me vent.
Sometimes writers use this kind of talk to help them understand when something is broken in their work. I’ve heard writers say that it felt like their character didn’t want to do X, and that’s what told them the plot was broken.
But the woo-woo channeling bullshit is very, very annoying, I’m with you.
Exactly. I only get annoyed when the tone of voice gets a bit too lyrical.
Dude, you’re not wrong. Writing is a craft. Like all other art some are naturally better than others, but EVERYONE has to work to make their stuff good. Those kinds of writers always like to be called authors instead of writers, and they don’t seem to like talking about revising or working out several drafts to get it to where it was good, they just like the attention and for someone to agree with them that they’re some kind of literature god. It’s annoying for sure. Before I knew about podcasts I listened to lots of author interviews on NPR, that’s all it was, thank goodness for podcasts.