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

[tammylee.livejournal.com]

...because it just confirms what people want to believe - that all genre fiction is inherently inferior...
Ugh, yes. This attitude needs to go away and blockbuster crap isn't helping. XD

[smarriveurr.livejournal.com]

Not to mention that whenever a genre novel starts getting literary attention, it stops being considered "science fiction" or "fantasy" or what-have-you - now it's a bildungsroman that just happens to be set on a fictional world where there happens to be magic, or it's a "startling vision of the future" or what have you.