Beware of "Very Serious Artists"

They don't get to define your worth

I’m taking a course on editing right now from a Very Serious Writer Organization.

It’s an excellent course taught by kind, encouraging people who love books and clearly know what they’re talking about. I’m a better writer because of it.

AND

This course will destroy every shred of my hard-won creative confidence if I let it.

That’s not really a criticism, more of an observation. This organization was founded by former agents and editors. They know the business of publishing. Their entire focus is on teaching writers what it takes to get traditionally published — to become, in other words, a Very Serious Writer.

And holy shit do they make it sound hard. For a course that claims not to follow hard and fast rules, they sure do offer a lot of strongly worded suggestions about what Very Serious Writers do:

Plotting is always better than pantsing. The best stories have these six elements. Don’t forget about these five million highly specific things while copy editing. You absolutely must use Scrivener to format your manuscript or an agent might reject it outright.

Maybe that’s true. Maybe you really do have to get all those things exactly right if you want to be a Very Serious Writer.

I see myself as more of a Fuck It, Let’s Drink Beer kind of writer

But you know what else is important?

Writing is supposed to be fun.

Any creative work is supposed to be fun. Having fun is the WHOLE FUCKING POINT!

(That’s not to say creativity can’t be serious — I wholeheartedly endorse taking your creativity seriously.)

Being a Very Serious Writer, on the other hand, does not sound fun at all. It sounds like way too many things to remember, way too many people to please, way too many rules, er, strongly worded suggestions to follow.

I’d rather be a Fuck It, Let’s Drink Beer kind of writer. Want to pants your plot? Use a dialogue tag that isn’t “said”? Employ, gods forbid, an adverb??? As long as you’re having fun, who the fuck cares? Let’s drink beer!

What kind of artist would you like to be?

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