Writing Down the Creativity

writer by ~AmythePirate

I was puttering about the interweb, when I ran across the headline for a blog post which asked, "is creativity important for being a writer?" With my jaw on my lap I hovered over a sentence or two where the conclusion was . . . eh, not so much.

WHAT?!?

Ladies and gentlemen, I have a rant I must now share, and it starts with a little bit of autobiography.

I started doing extra writing assignments (for fun), in the first grade. But the fifth grade, teachers told me to turn in my rough draft because re-copying it to make a final would be too much work. I have handed in 28 page stories for a 2 page assignment. All three years of high school I was in creative writing. I only had three years of high school because my Mom offered to pay for me to go to community college during the summer to graduate early and take writing classes.

I have put is way more than the 10,000 hours required for me to be a master writer. I have read several times that to be considered an accomplished literature-geek. Ladies and gentlemen, I like Moby Dick. Yes. I am qualified to tell you what I am about to tell you.

I was never meant to be a writer.

At least, not like what most people think of when they think of a writer. It's a blushing fact we should acknowledge that writing has become very fashionable, and everyone and their dog now tries their hand at it. And why not? Standards and method of regular publishing have fallen so far that writing which makes English teachers cringe is now routinely being put out because their candy-plot lines and simple reads appease the same masses who watch reality TV and are mad that Buffy went off the air.

Did that sound snobbish? Sorry. But I am a snob. We used to have fewer, but higher quality writers; now they are being lost in the glut of inadequate manuscripts, and frankly, it ticks me off.

Because this is such a fashionable thing, mainstream culture has an almost unconscious understanding of what a writer should be. They write books. Pretty thick ones. Fiction is good. Non-fiction is good too if it's soul-appeasing (or ego-stroking) self-help, or if it's something about leadership and business. Oh! And how-to! Having spent so much time reading, we now actually can't think for ourselves and have to be told how to do everything.

Poetry has died. Short-stories survive because of snobs like me who still read literature magazines. If you claim to be a writer you better have at least one novel under your belt.

And I do. It's awful. It is exactly everything I hate about books these days. It's cliche, and shallow, and sappy, and meandering, and all kinds of terrible. Don't get me wrong--most people enjoy reading it (so I have been told a hundred times)--but I've read the Count of Monte Christo, and Eifelhiem. I know what good books are actually supposed to look like. I know mine falls short.

And I know why mine falls short. It's not because 10,000 hours weren't enough to dredge up talent--I'm actually really good when I'm writing poetry (*cough*sometimes*cough*) or short stories. I'm good at those because my brain works in snap-shots. I see or sense beautiful things, and they come to me complete. I put them down and then edit two weeks later. I'm bad at being a "writer" because novels take a type of thinking and creativity that is foreign to me. I can't haul creativity out for the long run.

Which brings us back to that blog-post which had the audacity to say creativity was second fiddle to skill.

You're right. You can be a writer without seeing a plot laid out before you. You can put all the letters and punctuation in the right place (better than me, at least) without being able to infuse characters with dynamics and realism. You can pump out cheesy novels based on your day-dreams, and people may even like them.

But you know what? If you want to be a good writer--if you want to last forever, and be worth your salt and a little bit of ink too--you need a type of vision and creativity that will make your work matter. You need to have something to say, that is unique to you, and not your personal take on the popular theme of the moment, changed just enough to avoid copy-right infringement.

There are many "writers" out there who may or may not have put in their 10,000 hours, and can make a book. Their "skills" will do them justice. But a true writer will have creativity and imagination that shows us something new, and their skills will bring them honor.