Russian assassins, real and fictional
6 years ago
Monday, 19 October 2009
So long, farewell, and so forth
One of the recommended pastimes for a wannabe hack writer is to read widely. I've read newspapers, I've read magazines. I've read blogs by people I know and blogs by complete strangers. I've read cereal packets and adverts on bus shelters. I'm trying to read two books simultaneously, one at home and one at work. They're both archaeology so at some point I am going to get seriously confused and put Culloden down as one of the major battles of World War One.
And what has all this reading taught me? That I have nothing to say. I can't comment intellligently on topical issues (http://www.bitmorecomplicated.com) or on books (http://norfolkbookworm.blogspot.com). I can't write commercially; a sheaf of rejection slips attest to that. As a embryonic hack, the realisation that I'm just not able to cut it is a hard one, but at least, agents aside, I've not wasted anyone's time but my own.
So for now I'm laying this blog aside until I've got something to say and the means to say it well.
Thanks for sticking with it so far, and adieu.
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3 comments:
Don't do it! You have plenty to say. Just let it out.
As for rejection slips, agents and publishers are currently in the grip of mass panic, and are finding reasons not to publish anyone who is not a celebrity of some sort - with the odd exception when they all go into an insane feeding frenzy over what they perceive as the Next Big Thing.
There are so many of us in the same unpublished boat that any minute now things will change.
Looking for Buttons was one of the best things I read on Authonomy. Do not lose heart!
Thanks Lexi, but I think I should call it a day. I've taken L4B off Authonomy as I can't find enough time to comment intelligently on anyone's work, and I've mothballed the manuscript. Time to concentrate on getting a proper job.
Good luck with your books, I hope you get published soon. :-)
Best of luck with the proper job; but I hope you will keep writing as you have so much talent.
Authonomy is a very mixed blessing, and not as good as it was when it started. I'm mainly just checking in for my messages these days.
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