Wangst and weemo

[feuervogel]

I read a lot of writers' blogs. Or LJs, whatever. And I've started to feel like I'm inadequate and inept as a writer, because I wasn't an English major. I'm not Trained in things like Narrative Technique, Structure, and Symbolism, and I'm not well-read enough in classics, folklore, or myths to make use of Allusions.

I'm an impostor.

All I've got is some characters, a story idea, and 20-odd years of reading spec fic (and some Real Books™). No technique, no ideas for creative symbolism or structure or literary allusions.

I'm never gonna sell anything.

Comments

[intravenusann.livejournal.com]

I think that's ridiculous. I am an English major--hell, I'm an English major 'with a concentration in Creative Non-Fiction' and I'm trained in all that stuff and well-read in classics, folklore, and myths (not just the Western, Greco-Roman, Biblical stuff either), but honestly I feel like you have a much better chance of becoming an author than I.

I think about it and how many authors do I love who were actually English majors? None. Zip. Zero. How innovative are my fellow English majors? How innovative am I in a sea of other writers and English majors who wish they could be writers? Leads me to feel that people who write become authors and English majors become teachers and professors and perpetuate the cycle.

Rather than piddling away time learning How To Be Like Everyone Else In Your Department And the Mainstream of Respectable Fiction and Non-Fiction That No One Ever Reads, you learned actually useful things and lived a life and read stories which were enjoyable--which I think gives you Something to Write About. Everything else is practice, persistence, and luck.

Also, this:



I hope it cheers you, since that was the intention. I'm probably bitter myself and I hope that doesn't overpower an effort to cheer.

[feuervogel]

Avenue Q makes everything better.

You make good poetry. It's kinda depressing, but that means you can evoke emotions well. (I'm thinking about one you posted earlier this year about living in Guam.)