Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
Years ago, a chap I knew online who was a writer and editor asked when I was going to take a shot at writing for publication. He thought I showed a grasp of prose and a sprightly style in my messages in the online forums we frequented.
I agreed I could write readable prose pretty much by reflex, but more was required: you needed stories to tell. I didn't happen to have any floating in my head that would expand to a book, so I was passing, thank you.
Loquacity in a forum like this is one thing. Stuff that will sell to a paying market is another.
Pshrynk may be right. And if he is a really good pshrynk, well, we need them.
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Dennis
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True ... very true. I've got tons and tons and a few pounds left over of stories ... all true, some just plain weird. Problem is, I don't think I have the gift of prose. At least not in my own style. I tend to write a bit in the style of whatever the last book I read. When I write as I would write naturally, it's very dry and cut to the chase.
While I was reading David Sedaris's book ... forgot the title, his latest, I thought, "you know, I could string a bunch of stuff from my life and write something like this." But then, that's the problem ... it would be "something like" what David Sedaris wrote ... it wouldn't be very original, even if it was stuff from my own life.
And, if it can't be original, then what's the point?? So every time I give it any thought ... I talk myself out of it. I guess I have a fear of being a "hack" at those things I don't do really well, and I don't think I'd like being described as a "hack writer."
