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"Where do you get your ideas?" I plagiarize them, obviously; don't you?
Nor:
"We've decided to go in a different direction. It's a business decision, nothing personal..." Translation: F and Y. So it goes.
They are:
"Oh, you're a writer? I'm working on my biography and I was wondering if you'd like to help me..."
I get so, SO sick of this. But one can't be churlish to people about it, so I'm going to vent it here, not directed at any forum participant but at every clown who has blurted this to me in person:
You have lived a very standard and normal life that is no more interesting than much of anyone else's, except to yourself and probably your grandkids. What in the world makes you think anyone but your family would care? Why should they? Have you got voluminous notes to work from? No. Have you even started writing? No. Have you ever marketed a book? No. Do you have any idea how to market a book? No. Did it ever occur to you that the misguided notion that someone would pay to read your life story has only occurred to about 100 million other Americans? No. Do you have a good title idea beyond Joe Smith: An American Life? No. Do you have a book proposal to show me? No. Do you have any idea what a book proposal is? No. How about a query letter? No. Do you realize how sick I am of this? You do now. Will you refrain from bringing this up to me again until you have either a draft of a book or enough written source material to write a book from, a solid book proposal that covers marketing, and a firm plan to pitch the book to the publishing industry? Please, say yes. It will save me the trouble of having to say 'go away.'
Thanks for hearing the rant out. Anyone else dislike this as much as I do?
"Where do you get your ideas?" I plagiarize them, obviously; don't you?
Nor:
"We've decided to go in a different direction. It's a business decision, nothing personal..." Translation: F and Y. So it goes.
They are:
"Oh, you're a writer? I'm working on my biography and I was wondering if you'd like to help me..."
I get so, SO sick of this. But one can't be churlish to people about it, so I'm going to vent it here, not directed at any forum participant but at every clown who has blurted this to me in person:
You have lived a very standard and normal life that is no more interesting than much of anyone else's, except to yourself and probably your grandkids. What in the world makes you think anyone but your family would care? Why should they? Have you got voluminous notes to work from? No. Have you even started writing? No. Have you ever marketed a book? No. Do you have any idea how to market a book? No. Did it ever occur to you that the misguided notion that someone would pay to read your life story has only occurred to about 100 million other Americans? No. Do you have a good title idea beyond Joe Smith: An American Life? No. Do you have a book proposal to show me? No. Do you have any idea what a book proposal is? No. How about a query letter? No. Do you realize how sick I am of this? You do now. Will you refrain from bringing this up to me again until you have either a draft of a book or enough written source material to write a book from, a solid book proposal that covers marketing, and a firm plan to pitch the book to the publishing industry? Please, say yes. It will save me the trouble of having to say 'go away.'
Thanks for hearing the rant out. Anyone else dislike this as much as I do?
Ugh, I have a friend who always says, "People tell me I should write a book about my life!" She has a severely handicapped child and has had to face some challenges--just like the mother of all handicapped children. And I think to myself Why? What would you write in that book? That, in addition to being the mother of a handicapped child you spend 75% of your waking hours on your cell phone talking about how rough your life is? That you are in danger of foreclosure on your home yet you spend hundreds of dollars and hours of time at garage sales every weekend buying things you don't need to stuff into your attic, garage and shed? That because you never paid much attention to your HEALTHY child she is now a fat, lazy, blob of a high school dropout who reads at about a sixth-grade level? You don't open your mail for weeks at a time--how on earth would you ever write an entire book and then market it?
I grew up in an almost all-white, suburban town. I am of Dutch and English descent, with very few cultural distinctions of that heritage, except that at one point we had a small wooden windmill on our front lawn. My father was an engineer, and my mother stayed home.
When I was 31 I got married. When I was 43 I got divorced. I have one child. I have been at my job for 31 years. My daughter is now in college, and I live alone with my four cats.
I grew up in an almost all-white, suburban town. I am of Dutch and English descent, with very few cultural distinctions of that heritage, except that at one point we had a small wooden windmill on our front lawn. My father was an engineer, and my mother stayed home.
When I was 31 I got married. When I was 43 I got divorced. I have one child. I have been at my job for 31 years. My daughter is now in college, and I live alone with my four cats.
Think it'll SELL?
I think it's hot. Buzz on the street is that J.K. Rowling is going to have to restart Harry Potter to keep her mojo.
Seriously, though, I'm glad I'm not the only one who has dealt with this, considered it and thought: "Only my relatives would want to read this, and if it was complete and truthful, half of them would never speak to me again after doing so. Nix. Instead I'll write things someone would actually be interested in reading, rather than my father's heroic struggle to support us while finishing his master's, and the numerous times I've almost gotten killed."
There is a certain admirable self-honesty in admitting that one's life isn't terribly interesting.
I think it's hot. Buzz on the street is that J.K. Rowling is going to have to restart Harry Potter to keep her mojo.
Seriously, though, I'm glad I'm not the only one who has dealt with this, considered it and thought: "Only my relatives would want to read this, and if it was complete and truthful, half of them would never speak to me again after doing so. Nix. Instead I'll write things someone would actually be interested in reading, rather than my father's heroic struggle to support us while finishing his master's, and the numerous times I've almost gotten killed."
There is a certain admirable self-honesty in admitting that one's life isn't terribly interesting.
In a writing workshop the instructor told us keep using the "so what" test to find out if anything is interesting. If you can keep answering the "so whats" past a certain point, you may have a story. One of the participants wanted to write about being 55 and taking up SCUBA diving. She was visibly taken aback when the instructor said, "So what? It's not unusual these days for women in their fifties to try new things, and you're likely not the only woman that age doing this."
The one somewhat interesting event in my life was that I am a survivor of the World Trade Center attacks. "So what?" About 15,000 other people are, too. I did get a few things published as a result of that event, but they weren't about ME. I wrote about the diversity of people who worked at the WTC and the irony that such a place was the target of a hate attack, and I wrote about the homesickness for the buildings themselves.
The problem is in the "me" factor. Now I know there are people, at least one of whom I've seen on this forum, who write about their lives and their families, but primarily for family and for future generations, not under the illusion that it will be in Borders main window someday.
OK, just playing devil's advocate here (maybe because I am a 'new' writer). I do not think it is a bad idea for anyone to write a book - even if it is bad or really bad. If someone said they think they are going to write their story - tell them to just go for it. Chances are it probably won't sell - but WOW, what a great experience!
I totally agree with the OP's statements though. If I was an experienced, published author I can see how all those comments would get old pretty quick.
The problem is in the "me" factor. Now I know there are people, at least one of whom I've seen on this forum, who write about their lives and their families, but primarily for family and for future generations, not under the illusion that it will be in Borders main window someday.
I read a lot of travel bios and consider myself a connoisseur of sorts. Ditto for stuff about sports. While it's okay to have some 'me' stuff in travel bios, I don't like it when the author goes all navel-contemplating. Enough is enough. However, I have it on very good authority I'm in the minority on this. I believe this because when I completed my own travel bio ms, and prevailed upon my old professor from college (25 years before...as you can see, this is a really nice man) to critique it, his first observation was: "You need to include more of yourself in this. You are so focused on what you see and whom you interact with, but you are not filling in the picture of yourself as observer." I see how what he said is somewhat tangent to my original notion rather than opposed, but I believed him and revised it.
With sports books: what I hate most is sportswriters writing about being media. I do not care who is the best interview or who is mean to the media, unless it's part of his story. I don't want to see the strings of media life behind the curtain. The writing should be the kind of thing an average fan could have written if s/he had access, journalistic ability and insight--there should never be a hint that you're a sportswriter, never a snipe about how mean the team's media policy was.
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(maybe because I am a 'new' writer). I do not think it is a bad idea for anyone to write a book - even if it is bad or really bad. If someone said they think they are going to write their story - tell them to just go for it. Chances are it probably won't sell - but WOW, what a great experience!
