"Writers Never Write" Crashout
So, as I work on my first manuscript, and chip away at short stories and writing commissions, I've stumbled upon a phenomenon in writing spaces that has really started to grind my gears.
Raise your hand if you've ever come across a post with the general message of 'Hahaha Writers just think about writing but never actually write!!!'. At first, the jokes are somewhat funny. They got a dull chuckle out of me the first few I came across, because yeah there are definitely days that are like that. Life comes at ya fast, and you gotta adapt. Sometimes when you sit down to write, a million other things call your attention, or the words just aren't wording. Natural part of being a writer, or really any kind of creative.
The issue that I have come to have with this kind of joke, is threefold.
It's overdone. I'm sure you could make a critically acclaimed book from just compiling all of the jokes with this concept, and labelling it a statement of irony or some shit.
It reads very much like a boomer comic. Y'know the stereotypical 'I can't read', 'i hate my wife' bit.
It paints a bad image of yourself as a writer, and writers as a whole. Which during a time where interaction is at an all-time low with creative works of all kinds, but especially writing? We need all of the good optics we can get.
Lets break these down one by one.
Overdone: It's a basic joke, that's been beaten to death. There hasn't (in my opinion) been a funny version of this joke in years, and it used to be an in-joke between writers but has since spread past the original walled garden it was contained within.
Personal anecdote that I have: I was telling an acquaintance of mine that I was a hobbyist writer, and their immediate reaction was to go "So how many hours do you spend looking at a blank document and calling it writing?" which is honestly just a rude thing to say to anyone, but it shows that even non-writers have started parroting this same joke.
Boomer Comic: Every time I read one of these jokes, or scroll past them, I find myself mentally going 'We get it writers 'suck' at finishing WIPS, especially fanfic authors'. And actually I'm going to go on a side tangent on the fanfic author bit, because I feel like this hits them especially hard.
Writing Fanfic is already seen as 'lesser' than writing original works, and it isn't helped by the image of being a 'lazy' creative, who procrastinates everything. And it pains me to see so many fanfic authors parrot this joke, because girlie!! (gender-neutral), HAVE MORE FAITH IN YOURSELF!!!
another thing I very commonly think at reading these kinds of jokes is just 'We get it, you hate your hobby and have no work ethic'. Which I will be the first to say is a rather rude interpretation, but it is the interpretation that enters my head the quickest.
Optics: This is kind of attached to my prior point, but these jokes having escaped their walled garden paints a really bad image of authors of all kinds. It builds a general consensus that writers procrastinate and never actually do the craft, which inevitably gives our audience, our readers the impression of 'Well if they don't care, why should I?'. I've seen so many fledgling authors be discouraged from writing due to people parroting this joke at them.
Another personal anecdote that I have just about this joke in general. I saw it a lot back when I wrote Halo fanfiction, and I remember going to my friend group and asking if I was doing something wrong, because I had never really come to this problem, and it felt like a rite of passage. That I wasn't a 'real' writer because I didn't struggle to put my words on a page. Which should never be the case!
It's really frustrating, because psychologically it does affect us. Any phrase repeated enough times, no matter if it's joking, sarcastic, sardonic, etc. Your brain will inevitably take it as fact. It's a big reason why positive self-talk is so important, and negative self-talk, even if it's done jokingly is so disastrous.
And this isn't even getting into the subtle ableism apparent in the joke in regards to ADHD and Autism, along with other neurodivergences. I can only talk about the ADHD side of things, since I'm not diagnosed with Autism, but I'd love to hear other's thoughts on this aspect especially.
It just kind of makes fun of people who can't immediately sit down and get to work on a task. Something that people with ADHD have a lot of difficulty with. I have a bunch of my own personal rituals that I do when I need to get words on the page and my brain isn't braining, and it takes a lot of time! Let alone if I get interrupted while in the middle of going through the rituals. But also there are just stretches of time that neurodivergent writers can't seem to get any words on the page, due to several different factors, but to boil them down to only those stretches of time, is incredibly insulting, and like I said before, has pushed people away from the hobby. Writing is hard work, and sometimes your brain isn't ready to do the hardwork! And Putting the actual words on the page is like…10% of writing??? There are so many different ways to put progress towards your WIP that isn't putting words on the page, like building outlines, or fleshing out characters, or mental worldbuilding. Not everyone benefits from writing their worldbuilding down, and would rather keep it in their head and letting it flow and mutate as is needed for the story. They are still doing work just because they aren't doing the act of writing!!!
I'm kind of losing the plot on this post, but I'd love to hear others thoughts on this, both from original writing and the fanfiction scene! If anyone else wants to add onto this post feel free to, I'd love to hear thoughts.
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