You know what's great?

Meeting a new person and having them ask, "So what do you do?"

You tell that person you're an author and they immediately say, "Oh yeah? I've thought about writing a book. I have this great idea..."

Everyone thinks they can write. Hell, everyone thinks they should write. It's an incredibly bloated market and these people who "have this great idea" don't seem to care that you've spent fifteen years honing your craft, improving your grasp of the language, your ability to plot, your use of foreshadowing and dramatic irony. Most of those folks don't know what dramatic irony is. They wouldn't be able to tell you what the six key elements of a story are (exposition, narrative hook, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement). They wouldn't know the meaning of most of these terms: allegory, allusion, foil, antagonist, archetype, situational irony, didactic character, 3rd-person limited POV versus 3rd-person omniscient POV, tragic flaw or unreliable narrator.

Hell, half these people don't even read books.

But why not write? Anyone can write.

Not just anyone should, however. Stringing coherent sentences together is not at all the same as understanding how to tell a good story. I realized this when I was working as an acquisitions editor for a small publishing company. I had to resign because the work submitted to me as "ready" for publication was literally strangling my own muse. The worst thing ever was a 'children's' book, a proposed series of a spunky little girl who solves mysteries in her neighborhood. Sounds good, right? Well, by the way, the little girl is assisted by the spirit of her talking dog. The dog couldn't talk when it was alive, but when her father murdered it, something in passing over made its ghost able to communicate. Nifty, huh? Oh and by the way, her father also rapes and molests her repeatedly, not as part of the plot, but just as a by-the-way sort of thing. But nothing can get this spunky little girl down! I almost hurled. This was supposed to be a kids' book. I am not kidding.

I'm tired of people thinking they could sit down and do my job. Do what I've spent years learning how to do. Who thinks they could be a doctor after watching ER? Who considers picking up spare income by moonlighting as a private eye after watching Monk? It takes serious effort to get good at this. Hard work does pay off, yes, but how many of those people who "have this great idea" actually set pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard)? But they're sure they could if they only had time.

Well, guess what? That's part of it. Prioritizing it as something you do, every day, because you want to and because you love it.

But what do I know? Anyone can write.

(This rant brought to you by the letter G and the number 5.)

Labels: SBD