Is writing "easy?" · 5:44am Jan 22nd, 2013
They say anyone can write.
This is not true.
In my time in the brony fandom as one of thousands of people on this site alone, and as a "casual" writer who hasn't published anything that brings in money, I've come to have this point of view that may or may not be correct...
The written word is often given a short shrift.
Fanfic is... well, I think it's safe to say many people consider it the "immature" aspect of a fandom. Music is art, art is art, writing is... ignored more often than not. Fanfic is often the part of a fandom that is singled out, pointed at, laughed at, the domain of wish fulfillment and idle fancy instead of something that could contain true depth. And I'm not saying this because I think I should be popular at the expense of my fellow authors. I just want to know how many of you share this view.
I think much of this has to do with the fact that humans are immediate gratification creatures. From the moment we are born, we do not learn from words. Words must be taught. Must be given meaning. We don't learn words until our brains are developed enough to realize "hey, this gobbledygook my parents are spewing is actually supposed to mean something." And even then, we don't learn written words, but spoken ones. From the beginning we have a bias towards vision and hearing. You hear a beat you like, and in a few seconds you can know you liked a song. You look at a piece of art and your eye can dart across the page and pick out anything and everything in a matter of seconds that appeals to you. Writing is different. Real writing, the kind of writing that elicits feeling and emotion and wonder is not easy at all.
Writing is, in fact, extremely difficult, partially due to these from-birth biases.
To start with you are dealing with the problem that I just mentioned. You need to draw people in with something or they won't even bother.; that's why books have cover art. It's why we have pictures on our fanfics. It's why we have snazzy synopses that say "Hey, this story will appeal to you." Once the reader is at the first page, your work has only just begun. Unlike art or music, one must often read an entire story before they are fully satisfied. This takes commitment and time which people often don't have. Instead of a three minute song or an art piece they can admire for a few seconds before moving on, they have a wall of text to sift through.
When you write you are communicating with the reader. You are trying to get inside their heads and make them see something. You can't just write "Twilight Sparkle is a pony." If I drew a picture of Twilight Sparkle you would immediately know who and what she is. You would immediately see how big, what color, what type of pony, and even what a pony is. You might even gauge her personality depending on how you draw her. You would be able to see how ugly or attractive she is. How she possesses bookish charm and well rounded flanks and that adorable mane cut-
... Ahem. Moving on.
Writers don't have it so easy. You can't show anyone a picture of Twilight Sparkle: you have to describe her. You have to tell them that she's a lavender unicorn of such and such height with lively, big eyes and a friendly smile, tell them the shape of her mane and cutie mark. You have to say what's on her mind, what her preferences are, tell the reader why she relates to them and why they should care.
In short, I often think writing is in some ways more difficult than art or music. Even music can communicate feeling quickly and efficiently. Writing requires a much larger investment from the reader. They aren't really "given" anything. They must bring their own vocabulary, their own preconceived notions of what ponies are. Their very imaginations must be brought to the table and wrestled with. If you get someone with a bad imagination, no amount of writing will help. Art will tell even the simple everything they need to know at a glance, but if it doesn't the thing they turn to next are the written instructions. It's why the written word is so important and often a realm that people don't care to penetrate or don't have the ability to.
Now then. Why is fanfic often considered immature? Well, frankly, people are often exposed to the lowest common denominator because of what I've mentioned above.
I'm going to sound a little contradictory here and say art and music is also more difficult than writing. It's hard to make a good song that isn't just you banging on your old electric keyboard. Likewise, it's very hard to make a visually appealing picture of your favorite pony engaged in sexual deviancy. Far easier to write a few paragraphs quickly and graphically detailing pony sex. It's hard to make a totally awesome picture of your totally awesome OC; much less inconvenient to simply say "This dude was totally awesome and could lift 3 billion tonnes of burden and was Celestia's boyfriend." That took about ten seconds, give or take, as opposed to the years of discipline you need to become a great artist. A cheap story takes about an hour to read and bam! You have your fill of pony sex for the day. A great story takes a long time to digest, and if you're not even going to read about Luna seductively putting on socks for your trouble why even bother, am I right?
Fanfic is stuck in the unenviable position of being both extremely accessible no matter what your skill level and yet incredibly hard to pull off right. Writing is hard and there's no two ways about it. It's hard to get writing any real respect in spite of all the talent I see on this site. There are many, many popular artists and many, many popular music makers. I have never, ever heard of Short Skirts and Explosions or Kkat or Blueshift or any other big author being "featured" at one of the big conventions, or even really being known at all outside of writing circles. I know of only one event at a con that concentrated purely on writing. It's a sad state of affairs that writing is just kind of there instead of getting the recognition it deserves. If anyone wants to correct me on this, feel free.
But we writers soldier on because sweet Celestia help me, the act of writing is a balm for my soul.
Yes. just yes to this all.
We're a small club, but we've got depth to our appreciation. You can bet the best fics stay in folks' minds a lot longer than any pictures or catchy tunes, and you can double-bet I've spent way, way more time reading than doing any of that other stuff. It's not for everyone, but it's important to those it is for.
Most fanfiction is pretty bad, but the idea that the medium itself is to blame for that comes from a misunderstanding of the value of "originality".
Aaaand this is why you hold a special place in the list of writers which I can name off-hand.
Anyone can write, yes, but not everyone can write correctly. While this does portray to things like grammar, that's not what I'm getting at. What I mean is that anyone can understand a word's meaning, but not everyone can give meaning to a word we understand. It's that what separates the good fanfiction from the bad, and unfortunately the former is in small supply. It's because of the overwhelming amount of mundane, tedious, boring, or just downright awful stories that fanfiction is generally looked down upon, and while there are diamonds they're buried under feet of sand and the average person is too lazy to scratch beyond the surface.
To venture on beyond what's given is another part of fanfiction's failure—not because it's bad, but because it fails to catch attention because it requires work to become enticed. In music, there's a catchy beat and memorable lyrics pretty much instantaneously, and it hooks the audience. With art, well, the entire piece is a hook. But with fanfiction you have to dig, and people are too lazy to pick up the shovel.
Well said. Writing is a beautiful art, isn't it? You can paint a picture, give life to a character, even create a world with writing. Truly, it is an art.
Nice post.
Fanfictions and (other) art are rather complementary. Writing gives the pictures and music a depth that just wouldn't be there without it. They can build on top of this foundation to make an even stronger connection with the observer, or listener.
Both requires rather different kinds of skills. For example, I've found out that writing a story is very hard for me. I have no idea as to what I'd put into that fictional world of mine. And I've got even bigger problems with making up any kind of an adventure for the characters. It's only in those bright moments of sudden inspiration that I'm able to get something out of myself freely. With different people, you'll get different answers about what's harder, because it depends on their individualities.
Damn.... well spoken, my friend.
Couldn't agree more. You at least have a wonderful way with words. I don't.