Before Spillology came into existence, I used to write a lot. In fact I still do. What you see published on here is a relatively small part of my overall writings. Though I had a few small scale successes, I would not consider myself an aficionado. Though I am passionate about writing I realise there is a lot I have to learn, there is a very long way I have to go to be able to consider myself a competent writer. But the term writer in itself seems quite interesting. Who is a writer? What does that person do? What is that fundamental quality that makes a writer into a Writer?
The simplest way to describe this profession is to say a writer is someone, who makes a living through writing. Shakespeare is the most obvious example. He did not need to learn a trait, he was not working a field, being at the mercy of some lord. No, he would sit and write his plays. This is not the only way to look at the writer. Well why can’t a writer be someone who published a piece of literature, but kept the comfortable office job?
Now here we find our main problem with this profession. I have had many opportunities to speak to plenty of people of my age group or of similar age groups. Writing today has become cheap. Where a child dreams of being an influencer, so do most people think they have this gift for writing. Even worse is not having the gift, while also not trying to improve your skill and still think that you have some text of great meaning and importance in you. Writing has become the same as being in a circle of people who are on their journey to education. Those people stand around proclaiming that they are interested in psychology, without being able to even vaguely describe the principles of therapy or not knowing the definition of psychology. So it is with plenty of these self-proclaimed writers. They write until homework comes up, or until they get bored, tired, or whatever other excuse saves them from sitting at the keyboard.
I have to be fair, it is not just the youth that cheapens writing. When I was visiting my home country of Lithuania, I have this habit of always visiting two particular book stores. Although I visit many of them, however there are two that I love, always manage to find something and the staff is always ready to have chat, with that weird giant in a suit looking through every shelf. I find that bookstores give a really nice overview of what people tend to read. To be fair, though with George Orwell and Karl Jung in hand, I was left disappointed. The shelves were dominated by biographies of celebrities and low-level self-help books that all were repeating the same handful of points.
Prince Harry’s book “Spare” is the newest rendition of a long line of well-meaning books that empower the writer to tell their story, however still manage to stink of narcissism, while desperately trying to win some fame, recognition and opportunities to be in the public eye. This is the persistent perversion of the writer’s profession. When a fight for relevance replaces the merit of one’s own ideas, eloquence and decency. Combine this shameless spotlight-chasing with my aforementioned idea that everyone is capable of writing well and you see bookshelves full of rubbish.
Education, though seems like the way to go, hinders you even more. While reading Albert Camus’ “The Plague” I became less fascinated by the story and much more captivated by the narrator. I found him to be the most intriguing part of the story, with all the inconsistencies that somehow seemed consistent. However, when I tried to replicate it, though it worked out quite well, the teacher, even after me explaining my intention, persistently claimed, it was an error on my part and a bad style choice in general. The same thing happened in another class. The teacher was constantly praising this one writer, who was sarcastic and critical of everything, however when writing, apparently he claimed sarcasm as his own invention. Especially seeing how writing sarcastically was unofficially banned after we were done reading him. In general schools makes us stick to introductions that are all the same, with text forms nobody in the real world actually uses to write a tolerable text.
The realistic question is not what makes a writer a writer, since becoming a writer requires you to claim to be one. The realistic question is what makes a writer a good writer?
In short defiance. If the fuckers give you lined paper, write the other way. Spit on your teachers, however take criticism seriously. Make sure, however that it comes from a place of trust and competence. Do not forget to pick your audience. There is no shame in writing with simple words and short sentences. Personally, I read and discuss a lot of philosophy. It makes it very hard to write short sentences for the most part.
Do not be afraid to be yourself. Though I do not particularly enjoy societal commentary, it is still interesting to see, how different people can write the same topic. For example, when it comes to misery, Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy though fascinating have very interesting outlooks. Dostoyevsky being the miserable one and Tolstoy overwhelming intellectual. Similarly, be yourself when you write, but do not get too comfortable. Writing is a skill, therefore improve yourself and improve your writing.