Honestly, I think the whole “don’t pay the writers” thing boils down to the notion that everybody thinks they can write. It’s the old saw about the novelist at a cocktail party having to hear someone say, for the millionth time, “I’d love to write a book someday.”
Someone–Stephen King? Pretty sure I saw this in a Stephen King foreword–once said they’d like to say to a brain surgeon, “Boy, I’d love to do brain surgery someday.”
We treat “the ability to put words into a sentence” like it’s just the same as “the ability to form a coherent narrative that engenders a variety of emotions within the reader and puts them in a scene and shows them what they didn’t see before”.
And that’s like me drawing a stick figure and saying I’m an artist.
Writers are constantly devalued because everyone thinks they have a book in them and don’t realize the level of skill and commitment it takes to finish even a short story, much less a whole book.
This goes well beyond fandom, but man, I would’ve hoped fandom would know better.
***REBLOGS AGGRESSIVELY***
This is the truth of the matter right here, folks.
Writing is a skill, just like art, and it’s not something just anyone can do. You have value as a writer and it’s time to remind the world.
And my first thought was closet. Just an ordinary, tiny, New England closet.
But no!
There are STAIRS in that closet!
Now where do those stairs go, you may ask?
Up to the black void attic of course.
But you know, it doesn’t seem to end there.
Because for reasons no one seems to know, this door deadbolts from inside. There’s nothing but a black void up there. Why must it lock on that side of it???
Of course, it was then that I spotted something else.
Why yes, those ARE scratch marks on the inside of the door. Which, one might think dog because they’re so low on the door (only a third of the way up).
But you know, this wouldn’t be fun if that was all there was.
That deadbolt has scratches all around it too.
Funzies!
Because guess what.
That deadbolt is five feet off the ground. And there is no dog in this house tall enough to reach it.
Pretty sure I just entered a horror film.
Gotta love Boston architecture.
You’re friend’s a werewolf don’t be afraid just support them.
