the new york times

Can You Write Too Much?

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Over the weekend, I came across an article by Stephen King on The New York Times website. King talked about whether or not a writer can be too prolific. I found this to be an interesting topic and one I continually found myself thinking about. It never occurred to me that there may be such a thing as too much writing. To me, if you have the ideas, time, and ability you should be writing. A lot of writing in turn produces a lot of books- what’s wrong with that? I know literary critics are often harsh on authors who produce a lot of product. They often aren’t taken seriously in the “intellectual” literary world because how could someone produce high quality, perfect work in just a few months? Quantity has a history of automatically devaluing your work when it comes to critics and publishing professionals. Our world is constantly evolving and it’s about time that way of thinking changes along with it.

King highlighted a couple of very interesting points in his article. My favorite line from the article is, “No one in his or her right mind would argue that quantity guarantees quality, but to suggest that quantity never produces quality strikes me as snobbish, inane and demonstrably untrue.” It irks me that an author could be passed over solely due to the number of books he/she has to their name. Assumptions should not be made before the research is completed. Looking at King’s book rooster of over 55 books, it wouldn’t be uncommon for one to think that he is just turning out junk after junk just to get books published. But, what about actually picking up one of his books? If you do, you will find that the quality, despite the quantity, is certainly not lacking. King, along with the many other authors he mentioned in his article, deserve just as much high literary praise as anyone else. Quantity does not equate to quality, no matter which way you look at it.

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I also found much meaning in King’s reasoning to be prolific, “But I also understand that life is short, and that in the end, none of us is prolific. The creative spark dims, and then death puts it out.” Our lives are not prolific, death is the end game for us all. With our death, our ability to write and create dies as well. As writers, our worst fear is to die before we had a chance to say everything we wanted. Why not take full advantage of our gift while we have it? We need to make the most out of the life we are living, while we are living it. If you want to write 60 books, write 61.

As King concludes, prolificacy is not a bad thing if it’s used correctly. We want our work to be polished, thought out, and valuable. For some, that takes years. For others, it could only take weeks. We all work at our own speeds. We all have our own processes.It doesn’t mean one end product is any better than the next. Don’t ever shy away from writing because you are afraid of producing too much. Let the critics do their job (and ignore them if you have to) and you do yours- write. Write on.

Should You Read While You Write?

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A few days ago, in The New York Times two great authors, Zoë Heller and Anna Holmes, contributed to the column called ‘Bookends’. The topic was what authors read while they write. It was very intriguing to me because it is something I honestly never gave much thought about. But, in many ways, I could completely relate to it. For my job I read a lot and that reading is usually picked out for me based on what I am researching at the time. Some of it I rather enjoy, while other times there are books that I really wish I could permanently erase from my brain. This act of “forced” reading greatly affects what I read when I am not at work. I gravitate towards books that will hopefully rejuvenate my love for reading and will somehow, magically, cancel out those “bad” reads. This often leaves me searching for the complete opposite of my work reading. As a publishing professional, my work affects my personal reading choices. Just as for writers, their work affects their personal reading choices as well. Both authors have a different perspective on what they read while they write, but the underlying message turns out to be the same.

Zoë’s position is based on practicality. At first, she likes to read books that will give her the necessary background information she needs to write. Research is important and to incorporate it into your personal reading while writing seems to certainly prove helpful. She points out that she doesn’t overload herself with research as she finds that she will start to sound more like a textbook rather than herself. After her research stage is done she has a few go-to-novels that boost her moral while writing (if need be). She has read these books many times before so she knows what to expect and she knows how they will make her feel. They distract her brain from her writing, while taking her to a place she already knows. She also notes that she avoids reading new younger authors while writing. I imagine that one reason is probably because she doesn’t know what to expect, it’s new territory, and she has no idea how it will affect her.

Anna admits that she likes to read very detailed nature based works while writing because it gives her more perspective. The amount of detail, emotion, sensory imagery, and creativeness that goes into these writings reminds her that all she needs to write is right in front of her- she doesn’t need anything or anyone else to write. Both authors touched on procrastination, but Anna focused on it a bit more. She often finds herself reading while writing to distract herself or to avoid writing during a writer’s block. I think this is why nature writing appeals to Anna. Most of her reading while writing is meant to distract and avoid because she might be feeling incompetent in that moment. But nature writing reminds her that all the inspiration she is looking for is actually right there in front of her.

Both authors come to the conclusion that there is nothing you can read while writing that will make your writing path crystal clear or give you all the answers. But, reading does serve as an escape- a brief hiatus from the crazy world of a writer’s brain. It can lightly tap you back onto the right track and enable you to continue to do what you do best- write.

No matter what or why you read, you should always be reading. Reading refocuses you, brings you back down to Earth, and gives you the much needed “break” that will encourage you to continue to write. You need to find what type of reading makes you a successful writer, reassuring you that you can and will finish your next writing project. Write on.

Where M.F.A Dreams Meet Reality

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In the Education Life section of The New York Times they ran an article yesterday that dealt with M.F.A. programs. It was titled, Why Writers Love to Hate the M.F.A. I enjoy to write and I enjoy to read, so continuing my education in the field has always been something in the back of my mind. But, after my real world experiences the one thing I believe my generation (millennials) should be overly cautious of is whether the means (an M.F.A program) is the best way to the ends (a writing career)?

Here’s the truth as I see it. If you are a super intelligent, very diligent worker, your goal is to become a literary teacher/expert, and you may already possess a doctoral degree in some difficulty worded literary arena then an M.F.A in Creative Writing would be perfect and beneficial for you. First, you would likely get a free ride. You would have a decent shot at a tenured track job at some fancy liberal arts school. You would also likely ace the program. But, if you are a regular everyday person, who graduated college a few years ago and has some boring job you just aren’t happy with, an M.F.A program might sound tempting to you. Maybe it’s the golden ticket out of the rut you have been living in. Just because you love to write, have a slew of short stories you have written and saved on your hard drive, are an active blogger, or just have great ideas and story lines spewing out of your brain that does not mean you should go to an M.F.A program.  Let’s think about your goals for a second.  Are they to write? Are they to just keep on writing because it is something you love to do?  I am going to speculate the answer is yes. I am also going to tell you to keep your job and keep on writing.

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Here’s why. The path through any M.F.A program will be hard and academically challenging. Many of your ideas will be smashed, not to say that is not a good thing, but if it happens over and over again you will start to lose you self confidence for no reason. At this point, a regular individual who simply loves the act of writing is (on a regular basis) is having their ideas destroyed and picked apart. On top of that, they cannot match up intellectually or grammatically with the doctorate in Medieval Literature who sits to their left, nor the doctorate in Victorian Romantics who sits to their right. The professor, when reading papers by other classmates who are trained at a much higher level than the average writer, is going to scrutinize over your work harder than anyone else. By the end of the program (if you survive), you will be beaten and bloodied, your spirit will be tarnished. Oh, and you also owe between $30,000 and $72,000 for your degree. Think about it- just two years ago you had a job you weren’t too fond of, but you did not have these huge loans. You also felt like writing was the best thing in the world and now, well you probably are going to want to take a break from writing for a bit and vacation on a nice secluded island (but, you can’t afford it.) To top it all off, you aren’t going to get that “good” job you thought you were because you did not do as well as other students and you now have little confidence in your work, hurting your ability to sell yourself. The article suggests that success from an M.F.A. degree is going back to your career and doing some more writing, which is exactly what you were doing before. Really makes you want to send your application in pronto, right?

If you like to write, my recommendation is to keep writing. Do not go to get your M.F.A., at least not yet. I do think an M.F.A program has so many great advantages and can open doors left and right for the right person. Once you have built up enough confidence in your work, maybe do some self publishing first and gain a small (or possibly very large) fan base. Use that energy and positive support to write your next book, this time possibly your biggest hit yet. You may also get picked up by a large blog and write for them too. Gain your writing spirit and make that spirit so strong it cannot be broken, because people will always try. Then, maybe, go get your M.F.A. At that point you will not care about what your classmates and professors think. You will not care how “poorly” you are doing in your class, if you are trying your hardest. You will now have the opportunity to absorb and learn everything the program has to offer, instead of dwelling on the pity things. You will also have a much better chance of getting some form of scholarship with a developed writing background and post M.F.A. you have a fan base you will be able to share your fine toned work with. You won’t have to go searching for one, hoping that one day you will find it.

Education is the most important thing in life, but unnecessary education is very dangerous. Don’t make a decision based off a dream, make it based off of your own reality. Are you ready for the next step? If not, just keep writing. Write on.