should be but bullheaded ignorance has won the day
― OH NO, SECONDS LEFT, SECONDS LEFT, AND THERE IT IS. REGRET. (imago), Sunday, 26 May 2013 17:38 (eleven years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Friday, 14 June 2013 00:01 (ten years ago) link
writing is not very important, really
― stefon taylor swiftboat (s.clover), Friday, 14 June 2013 01:46 (ten years ago) link
inability to make a living is really the #1 reason -- lots of jobs give you bad backs and leave you lonely and depressed
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, 14 June 2013 01:52 (ten years ago) link
tbf i am a 'writer' albeit not of novels
pretty much all the options apply, although bookshops are n/a and 'nothing to show for wasting your life' is somewhat heightened
also fuck you matt hague
― mookieproof, Friday, 14 June 2013 02:00 (ten years ago) link
http://imgc.allpostersimages.com/images/P-473-488-90/61/6151/6JAG100Z/posters/james-thurber-i-m-so-glad-you-re-a-writer-i-m-just-full-of-themes-and-ideas-new-yorker-cartoon.jpg
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 14 June 2013 04:38 (ten years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Saturday, 15 June 2013 00:01 (ten years ago) link
should have realized, 'different and fascinating reason not to be a writer' should have gone, 'let me write it out for you'
― j., Saturday, 15 June 2013 00:05 (ten years ago) link
Did anyone else here study creative writing?
― the Shearer of simulated snowsex etc. (Dwight Yorke), Saturday, 15 June 2013 09:40 (ten years ago) link
I done a summer course at St. Martin's one year. It was really fulfilling. Nothing formal though.
― Ismael Klata, Saturday, 15 June 2013 10:12 (ten years ago) link
I cnat spel
― should we bin tapping? (darraghmac), Saturday, 15 June 2013 10:41 (ten years ago) link
1 there's no way to make a living at it unless you get connected to awful ppl or lucky2 even allowing for that you'd probably have to write utter dreck to do well
3 heartbreakingly, im not sure my dreck would be up to scratch ;_;
― should we bin tapping? (darraghmac), Saturday, 15 June 2013 10:46 (ten years ago) link
I dunno about dreck, exciting plots and so on are a much-undervalued part of fancy literature de nos jours imo. I don't see why crap plot + literary pretensions should be any less dreck than exciting story + terrible prose, for example.
― Ismael Klata, Saturday, 15 June 2013 11:30 (ten years ago) link
Oh i agree, dreck either way i mean
― should we bin tapping? (darraghmac), Saturday, 15 June 2013 11:42 (ten years ago) link
most of my heroes don't appear in no plot
― possible badger on malware thread (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 15 June 2013 12:02 (ten years ago) link
Ugh double neg ur off the list
― should we bin tapping? (darraghmac), Saturday, 15 June 2013 12:02 (ten years ago) link
I took maybe four or five writing courses in college plus one or two outside workshops, so I guess I was considering it at one point.
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Saturday, 15 June 2013 12:08 (ten years ago) link
I took an elective "creative writing" class in high school, but I can't say it took.
Later, after bouncing my way through three traditional colleges in under three years, I landed at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, where I was permitted to shape my own curriculum, as long as I could find a faculty member willing to supervise me. My interest was writing, but instead of "creative writing", I shaped my studies more broadly to encompass all kinds of writing. Basically, I studied rhetoric, in the classical sense of the term.
― Aimless, Saturday, 15 June 2013 17:28 (ten years ago) link
I did a degree in it; I don't think I ever learned anything from it.
― the Shearer of simulated snowsex etc. (Dwight Yorke), Sunday, 16 June 2013 19:10 (ten years ago) link
Do you still do it?
― Ismael Klata, Sunday, 16 June 2013 19:11 (ten years ago) link
I've not written any fiction in two years now, no. I do have a short story collection coming out soon though.
― the Shearer of simulated snowsex etc. (Dwight Yorke), Monday, 17 June 2013 07:42 (ten years ago) link
Loneliness. I always thought I was a lone wolf type, but I've come to realise that I'm not quite as comfortable in just my own company as I thought I was. I do need a bit of interaction to be able to get by properly, and spending weeks-on-end self-starting over a manuscript would be really hard.
this is the attraction of it for me. london's overcrowding makes me long for solitude more and more.
― Shamrock Shoe (LocalGarda), Monday, 17 June 2013 09:27 (ten years ago) link