Random Musings

I’m a big fan of this rather bizarre saying, and lately I find myself thinking it a lot.

I’m seeing a variety of folks claiming titles, even though they have dubious credentials. They’re strutting around among the other chickens, feathery butt swinging, wanting to be included, but they haven’t actually earned their space in that coop.

Do you know how hard it is to write a book? Do you know how difficult it can be to edit one, especially one that requires a lot of work? Do you know how skilled you need to be in order to be a good proof reader? Do you know what the differences are between copy editors and proof readers?

If you’re calling yourself a writer but you’re doing everything except write? You’re a feather butt.

If you want to be a writer, you’ve got to…write. If you want a place at the table, on the panel, in a room where other writers are discussing the conflicts of the craft, then you’d better be more than someone who talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk. Or, perhaps more to the point, someone who holds a pen but doesn’t sweat out the words.

I can hold a hammer. I can put in a nail. Sure, I can put on a big leather belt with lots of tools in it and tell people about types of screwdrivers. But if I don’t use those tools to build or fix anything, then I shouldn’t call myself a carpenter, should I? I’d be laughed out of room. As I should be.

Nor should people who simply know how to read call themselves editors.

Editing is an intense career, and you can do incredible damage by telling people how to make their books better, or what they’re doing wrong, when you don’t have any training in how to actually do those things.

And for fuck’s sake, if you can’t do it in your own writing, you definitely don’t have any truck in telling other writers how to do it.

If you want a place at the table, then do the work. Take the feather out of your butt and stop saying you’re something you’re not, if you aren’t prepared to do the work to join that group in a meaningful way.