There are some interesting ideas that float around about writing, and how to do it – how to get the whole shebang off the ground, and where you should draw the ideas from, and people talk a lot of shit about it that leads no one anywhere.
I have read books that are super-prescriptive in an effort to see what people got from them, and I found them to be trite and pompous, and speaking down to the would-be writer like they were in some separate class, or like they were a coal face that might produce diamonds, but that needed to be refined by the process outlined in the book.
I think, at base, you know if you have something. I think the world proves you wrong if you haven’t. I don’t think that means that you can’t get something, but there has to be a hunger there – it isn’t a head game. Sure, you have to be able to think, but if you don’t have any guts you won’t get there.
There aren’t ten steps or ten things it is best to do. People want there to be an easy solution or a short cut or a hack to every damned thing, but they are unwilling to sit down and just write.
I am sure everyone churns out shit – even the geniuses. Geniuses who don’t work hard have shit to show for it. I have met plenty who talk a good game and have dick to show for it – so what is smart worth if you hide it under the bed like your porn stash?
Do you get demoralised when no one reads a damned word of the genius that you wrote? Sure. Do you give up? Great … you aren’t a writer.
Read or don’t. Study or don’t. But you have to write. No writing – no writer.