Since 1949, the U.S. has celebrated National Authors Day–it’s funny I can find it written that way as well as National Authors’ Day and National Author’s Day–on November 1. I’m not sure if that’s why this month was picked to be National Novel Writing Month (better known now as NaNoWriMo), but I wish success to everyone who participates. And by success I mean this. Some of you will finish your novel and may even bring it in around the targeted 50,000 words. Some of you won’t finish, but you will start something that can continue to be developed even after the month is over. And some of you will just have fun–nothing wrong with that!
Regardless of how much you write or whether you follow through and finish, hopefully you’ll experience the satisfaction that comes with flexing your creative muscle. You may also acquire a greater appreciation for the amount of energy and effort that goes into writing. Such understanding might make you hesitate the next time you decide to trash a published writer. To actually finish a novel and revise it to publishable condition, to seek out and find an agent and/or a publisher, and then to promote it once it’s on the physical or electronic page–it’s an enormous undertaking. Even if you don’t like a particular writer’s work, if someone believed in it enough to put forth all that effort, then there are readers who will believe in it, too, when they find it thanks to booksellers, librarians, and other readers.
Today one of my favorite photographers, Joseph Holmes, retweeted from @lpvmagazine: You know you’re a real photographer when you spend your free time on the internet mocking amateurs & complaining about copyright. I think that sarcastic assessment applies to any creative endeavor. The people who are really creating in the arts don’t put their time and energy into belittling or taking shots at the efforts of others–they put that into their work. Sure, there are times an artist may compare his or her work to other people’s and think, Mine is better. It’s good to believe in your work and to think it’s the best! But mostly when I hear or read people taking shots at others’ creative accomplishments and efforts, I think of the Ram Definition of Snark:
Snark: when people who don’t do anything or make anything or accomplish anything mock the people who try–and call it “humor.”
You can answer in comments here, or on your own blogs, journals, Facebook pages, or Tweets: What authors have meant the most to you and why?
Hmm…I had no idea how unaccomplished I am.
Ya know? That totally did NOT come out the way I intended. I blame the illness from which I’m still kind of recovering.
How could that be true of The Rhonda, America’s Lesbian?
You probably need a cape.
I like all the Russian authors. Brooding and wordy, like my first BF.
At work, I get called the Snarkmaster. At 1st was taken aback by that definition. Then I thought ‘Well played, Ram!’ Outsnarked by a plastic sheep.
LOL.
I don’t always succeed, but I try to not snark too much about people’s creative endeavors. I know I could be much better about it. Especially when it comes to books. If I don’t like one, I often try to just not say anything about it. .+
Some great discussions and insights come from critical assessments of books, movies, art, etc. I enjoy reading/hearing what people appreciate or find disturbing in the creative fields, and I spent many years of my life reading and writing literary criticism.
But there’s a smallness to snarkiness that makes me uncomfortable, maybe because it seems focused on the perceived failings/flaws of who created something rather than the value or merit of the work.
I know I’m swimming against the current here. I come up against an ocean of snark daily, and others seem to enjoy it mightily.
I should add: I have always said I don’t dish it out because I can’t take it. I have my strengths, but other people are a lot tougher than I am in that arena.
I will never fault anyone for creating and trying to do something original or something that comes from the heart. What brings out the snark in me is pretentiousness masquerading as art (Lady Gaga comes to mind) or mediocrity (again, Lady Gaga comes to mind) passed off as something profound.
I had to take Art History in college (all art majors do) and I thought it would be so boring, especially when we got to the Middle Ages works, but they ended up being my favorite, the Romanesque Period was so awesome with the crudely rendered pieces that had so much heart. They spoke more to me than the finely wrought Baroque pieces ever could. All the technical skill in the world is meaningless if you’re churning out formulamatic crap to pull in a check or impress people. And yes, you can make money and stay true to who you are. It’s not easy, but it can be done.
Writers that I admire are Joseph Heller, John Irving, Robertson Davies, Annie Dillard, oh, there are too many to be named, but my favorite is Kurt Vonnegut. I read Breakfast of Champions when I was 13 and there’s a Vonnegut book that goes with each period of my life. I just reread Galapagos for the billionth time.
I can’t read any Dean Koontz books or Nora Roberts or Robert Patterson. If I can figure out the ending of the book in the first few pages, why waste my time? They’re sloppily written and trite.
A few posts back you had mentioned Victoria Holt and Mary Stewart. They could be formulamatic, but they were so well written that you didn’t mind!
If this makes me snarky, so be it!
There’s no way everybody can like everything, and I definitely have strong opinions about what’s good and bad. The things that bother me can sound like criticism of someone’s work, and are allegedly done for humor, but upon real consideration, to me they are more often attacks on the person who created it than the work itself, and when really stripped down, sound like resentment or jealousy of what the snarker perceives as being the markers of success: money and fame.
It’s not like I’ve never laughed at snarky stuff. I like a quick wit, and some so-called “stars” (in whatever field) practically beg to have their egos deflated. But a lot of commentary that gets called “snark” sounds less funny than bitter to my ears.
Hope that makes sense.
Oh! And you admire some of my favorite authors!
Whoa! I’ve been working like crazy on a story for the last week, unaware this is NaNoWriMo. Now I have to finish this damn thing for sure!
I know you can, I know you can…