♦Welcome to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop!♦
Topic #203
What are the most important resources for writers?
(Magazines, books, websites, etc.)
Welcome back to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop! The authors included in this ongoing series wish to thank you for your reads. We appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors engage and impress weekly. Prepare to become a regular reader.
The single most important resource for writers is…
Other writers.
That’s right. It is that simple.
Other writers will have a menagerie of experiences to share. These will be things that you’re probably not aware of or haven’t even thought you might need to know. If not that, the answers you seek would be in their perspectives. The take on a similar problem that you’re having by another individual can be rather eye-opening. This is because, again, you might not have thought about it the way they have. We seek to bounce our ideas off colleagues because that pays off for us. In addition, we have a history of engaging in this type of activity by which we can judge how useful another’s experience will be to our situation.
You can take all the magazines, books, videos, and other how-to-guides in the world, but the truth is that they won’t matter without context, without connection, and without perspective (meaning all the between the lines nuance you get from knowing someone and/or knowing various subjects that might relate from a variant lens). This is what can be called the intertext. It’s why advice columns don’t work for everyone. It’s the thing that causes you to doubt someone’s advice, too. This is how we recognize that whatever we endeavor upon will or won’t work out: we gauge it by the other knowledge we’ve gained in our lifetimes.
It’s pretty easy to write down your writing experience in a how-to-guide, denuded of all those details that give it a complete picture. You can’t write down everything, because of the limit of space, and because our memories are flawed. However, most guides are stripped to the basic bigger-steps that an artist may have taken—because you have no idea if they’re retelling the actual path or making something up because it sounds better. And, that is another reason that personal connections with other writers matter so much. You’ll know if they’re holding back or if they’re blowing things up. You’ll know if they are changing the story. Well, in most cases. We hope that our colleagues are honest with us.
Honesty, however, is dependent upon trust. If another writer you’ve become close with doesn’t necessarily trust you (for one reason or another), you won’t get them to open up entirely. They’re going to hold back because they suspect whatever they do say may be used against them somehow in the future. Distrust is a natural human emotion built on history.
Look, we all come to every relationship with our history and knowledge. We have to take that into account when interacting. As I have said before in other posts, don’t be fake and don’t use people. Your fellow authors are colleagues and deserve respect. Be fair and don’t expect too much from them. It is not their job to raise you up and they won’t get paid to do that either, so an expectation of this is unreasonable. If they do something for you, it’s an altruistic act. This means that it may or may not be repeated in the future. The most important thing is to be a friend without the expectation from the friendship of getting something with which to merely enhance yourself.
Beyond other authors, your most important resources will be your computer and internet, for obvious reasons of utility. Libraries, bookstores (online and off), continued learning classes, film, television, documentary, friends, family, and the world in which you live—will all be important resources. As I have said before, in order to be a prolific and healthy writer you are going to have to go out and live your life. Living and experiencing is the well from which you’ll draw your ideas and exuberance for writing. Included in that life are other authors and those important relationships you’ll forge with them.
Live. Be a friend. Write.
See the links below? Click on them to read what the other authors in the hop have to say on the topic. One or more of their perspectives could be key for you…
“Live. Be a friend.” Those words can apply to just about every area of our lives, not just writing.
Yes. That’s what makes them so important for us.
Very true, people, whether fellow authors or the ones whose overheard comment gives you an idea; are the greatest resource. Shared.
Thank you. Writing is so seemingly solitary, I think we authors tend to forget.
You do make some lovely points about writing friendships here.
Thanks, Roberta! Authors are so important to each other. I really hate to see us snipe at one another (which was the old way-with petty rivalries). I’m all for supporting a community of colleagues. Cooperation leads to much better outcomes for all.