November 06, 2002
Elitism rears its ugly head
So, I'm writing merrily along (but not Merrie-ly along), enjoying myself immensely--then today at school I had not one but two people ask me about this whole NaNoWriMo thing. I'd emailed about it to the class email list, and today one of my classmates and my professor, of all people, asked me about it. I suddenly found myself immensely ashamed of what I'm writing. I found myself saying things like, "Oh, I usually write fairly literary fantasy and sci-fi, but I'm just writing this silly stuff right now..."
How hypocritical is that? For all my bitching about how fantasy and sci-fi get stuck in Ursula K. LeGuin's "genre ghetto" (she had an awesome essay about this on her website, but it seems to be gone now, darn it), here I am doing the exact same thing. Well, this isn't my real writing, of course... Feh. As irritated as I am by the fact, the little elitist voice in the back of my head keeps whispering that writing this novel is somehow "beneath" me or my talents. Stop it, little voice! No value judgments, damn it!
I'm heavily caffeinated right now. I think I'm going to go write my words and to hell with the genre they're in. Excerpt probably to come later.
Posted by Lisa at November 6, 2002 11:15 PMI think the trick is not to be so self conscious about it. Most people I've talk to either think it's a neat thing to do or something crazy. You've just got to shrug off any potential criticism. No matter the genre, very few people can write something brilliant at the first go.
Take care.
Posted by: sya at November 7, 2002 12:08 AMMike Furir Mike 274
Posted by: Mike Furir 886 at April 8, 2006 04:25 PM